February 1, 2016
Two sisters keep in touch via letters in this debut from Beazley. Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday live a world away from each other--Cassie in New York City with her husband and twin sons and Sid in Singapore with her husband, young daughter, and teenage son. When technology-averse Sid suggests writing letters to keep in touch, the women start up a correspondence that allows them to share secrets they'd never spill in person. While Sid struggles with a distant husband in a foreign country, Cassie finds herself in an even more precarious position. Feeling bored at home and missing her career, she begins to take chances and share all of her dissatisfaction in her letters to Sid. Cassie scans and uploads all their letters to a private blog--but it isn't quite as private as she expects. What will the women do when their secrets are suddenly not-so-secret? The bond between the sisters is close and believable, and it's nice to see a sister relationship that's based on true friendship. Readers may find themselves wishing to see more of Sid, whose letters take up much less space, but Cassie is the sister with more internal conflict. Although she makes her fair share of bad decisions, her actions are always understandable. The epistolary format lends a certain voyeuristic thrill to the novel, and the sisters come to feel like real people through their letters. A sweet and satisfying story about sisterly love and forgiveness.
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March 1, 2016
Stay-at-home mom Cassie and her expat sister, Sid, make a drunken Christmas pact to reconnect by corresponding only through handwritten mail for a year, with Cassie secretly scanning their letters for posterity and saving them to a private blog. Cassie has three-year-old twins, a tiny West Village apartment, and a caring husband. She feels vaguely dissatisfied and uncertain how to cope. Sid has a teenage son, a toddler, and a distant husband. She is easygoing but finds herself confronting her husband's infidelity. The sisters' correspondence is intimate and open and safe for them both. When a technical glitch makes the blog public, the women become famous without their knowledge. Cassie discovers this through a magazine blurb and has to come clean to her husband, her sister, and their families. In her satisfying debut in the field of women's fiction, Beazley creates some real moments of concern for Cassie and her relationships with her loved ones. Offer this to fans of Anna Maxted, Sophie Kinsella, and Meg Cabot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)