I am a fan of Karen White. Her books are set in the southern US; they are romantic; they are sad; the stories usually include discovery of long-lost secrets, forgiveness and redemption. This story was no different.
In the 1950s, Margaret, Bitty and Ceecee were best friends. Margaret was the wealthy, beautiful one who attracted all the attention while Bitty and Ceecee were her "sidekicks". Margaret was used to getting her way, which did not serve her well after she makes some poor choices. People who never experience hardship in their lives don't have the willpower to trudge through and make tough choices when things go poorly. She gives up on her life way to easily and quickly, taking down her best friends in the process. Ceecee was the strongest of the three, but her character was also flawed because inside she was constantly fighting her jealousy of Margaret. Ceecee ended up having a very supportive and understanding mother though, which helped her through the difficult years. Bitty was more of a peripheral friend, always watching from the sidelines, smoking her cigarettes and eating her tootsie rolls. The reader learns pretty quickly that Margaret dies young and Ceecee raises Margaret's daughter, Ivy.
The second story is set in 2010 and the main character is Larkin, Ivy's daughter (Margaret's granddaughter), who left their hometown nine years previously because of an "incident" that happened at the end of her senior year of high school, which isn't really explained until near the end of the book. She returns only because her mother, Ivy, suffers a terrible accident. She is four sizes smaller than when she left, and as beautiful as her grandmother Margaret. She's also messed up. She was also raised, for the most part, by Ceecee and Ceecee had always treated her like she was the best thing since sliced bread. This also did not serve Larkin well since she could not face or address anything at all that was unpleasant or challenging. She would just run away from it. Ivy was comatose the entire story, so even though she was a "central" character, and we get to hear her thoughts while in a coma, she wasn't a main character.
Uneven love in a relationship always causes pain. Ivy seemed to spend her entire adult life pining after her first love, Ellis, instead of investing in her husband and daughter. And then Larkin returns after nine years and continues to be infatuated with her old high school crush, who is a womanizing jerk. So we have three generations of women who cannot adapt to changes in their lives that were completely out of their control. Margaret lost the love of her life in the war and spends the rest of her (short) life miserable and making others miserable with her. Ivy spends her life loving Ellis, who also died, instead of loving her kind, supportive and understanding husband and their daughter, Larkin. So of course, Larkin, not having good role models at all, pines after a complete jerk instead of seeing true love standing right in front of her. It was incredibly annoying!!
But Larkin redeems herself (and her family somewhat) in the end, even though the road wasn't pretty getting there. Secrets are revealed by a number of people, which enables Larkin to stop running away from her life.
Wendy's Rating: ****
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