A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW | Reviewed by: Roza
He can call his girlfriend from across the country, but not his mother from across town? This story was intended to be disturbing, and it certainly succeeded in that, but there are so many parts that are just too weird for words, and the ending is entirely unsatisfactory. It bounces around so much between the present and the past, and no one seems happy, and the things that I want to know more about are apparently uninteresting to the author. Being a wedding photographer could be really interesting! But the drama and misery and suspected cheating before that are apparently way more interesting. And the mistaken identity that drags on so long - why is this necessary? Sorry, it was an interesting premise, maybe, but the execution wasn't very engaging.
Nov 23, 2011 | 9780062080066
5 - Rare Top Pick | 4.5 - Top Pick | 4 - I Liked It | 3.5 - Enjoyable | 3 - OK | 2.5 - It just didn't click
Book Blurb for Everything We Ever Wanted
A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos. For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present. For his wife Joanna, it forces her to reevaluate everything she's hoped for in the golden Bates-McAllisters. And for Scott, it illuminates harsh truths about a world he has never truly felt himself a part of.
But for all the Bates-McAllisters, the call exposes a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together: the mystery of the school hazing, the event that tore Charles and Scott apart the night of their high school awards ceremony, and the intended recipient of a certain bracelet. The quest to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the long-dormant question: what if the life you always planned for and dreamed of isn't what you want after all?
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