REVIEW: DUNE ROAD, BY JANE GREEN

 

 

Kit Hargrove is starting over. After her divorce from Adam, a Wall Street executive, she sells the big fancy house in Highfield, Connecticut, and settles comfortably into a smaller Cape Cod in another part of town. Her two children, Tory, 13, and Buckley, 8, show some signs of the stress of transition, but other than the usual issues, they seem to be doing fine.

She hasn’t downsized to poverty…she is just not in the same social set. But Kit never enjoyed that scene anyway. She takes a job as an assistant to a best-selling author, Robert McClore, and finds a new mother figure in her next-door neighbor Edie. She still regularly socializes with her best friend Charlie, even though Charlie is still married and living in the big house.

Then along comes Tracy, and this is where things start getting interesting. Tracy seems like a con artist to me, and she is making some very questionable moves. What will we learn about her?

A new man suddenly pops up…compliments of Tracy pointing him out. Is there more to this story?

What appeared to be just the usual novel about new beginnings starts to take on a different premise, as more and more unexpected events are triggered, and Kit’s new life begins unfolding in unpredictable ways.

How do secrets from Kit’s mother’s past suddenly reveal themselves and begin to change everything Kit thought she knew about her and about her own life?

The characters that populate Dune Road were interesting, like real people who do annoying things to one another, while keeping potentially dangerous secrets. We see their vulnerabilities, their flaws, and watch how they deal with financial set-backs in the worst economic downturn in recent history. They are forced to question their attitudes, beliefs, and plans, and they must struggle to redefine who they are. The conclusion left me with a feeling of positivity. 4.5 stars.