Monday, February 16, 2009

Sunset Bay-Susan Mallery

Sunset Bay
Susan Mallery
Pocket, Feb 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9781416567172

On the plus side, Los Angeles CPA Megan Greene is doing well at work, has a great nurturing father and is engaged to a doctor. On the minus side she is somewhat estranged from her shallow younger sister Leanne and a source of scorn from her even shallower mother.

Megan’s life goes into tailspin when she learns her fiancĂ© is cheating. She ends her engagement angering her mother who reminds her she had no prom date. At work, a newbie is trying to use her not as a mentor but someone whose reputation is to destroy so there is one less body to step on in the climb up the ladder. Dealing with these issues seems easy until her father tells her to grow up. However the worst blow occurs when her high school boyfriend Travis comes home as he still owns her heart, the one he broke when she was eighteen. She considers returning to what enabled her to cope as a teen: designing clothing.

This modern day Job is an intriguing character study of a woman who seems contented in her life though she has relationship issues that she has ignored until the plus side of her personal ledge implodes. The poignant story line will leave readers thinking how they will react to what one perceives as a strength turning into a potential debilitating weakness. Although too much hammers as the heroine at one time, fans of contemporary second chance at life tales will appreciate Susan Mallery’s insightful drama.

Harriet Klausner

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