Book ~ "Vacation" (2005) Jane Green

From Goodreads ~ Just when she’d sworn off men for good, Sarah Evans met Eddie. Sarah was a magazine editor, living in Manhattan, and loving her life - except for the heartbreaks. A successful real estate developer, Eddie was a breath of fresh air, a meeting of minds - and bodies. Soon came wedded bliss, baby number one - and the proverbial move to the suburbs.

You just sit there like a slob while I do all the work. Nine years later, this is increasingly what goes through Sarah’s mind when she looks at Eddie, propped in front of the TV with a beer, ignoring their two children. The truth is, she misses her old life. She misses the old Eddie. She can’t help wondering if she’d be happier alone.

When Eddie’s job sends him to Chicago indefinitely, Sarah shocks him by suggesting a trial separation. But she knows it’s just a precursor to divorce - even if Eddie chooses to think of it as a “vacation.” Yet a lot can change - on both sides - as time goes by. And once Christmas arrives, Sarah and Eddie might re-discover gifts they’d forgotten they had.

When Sarah and Eddie met, they were in their twenties, living in New York, had great jobs and happening lives.  Nine years later, they are married with two children and living in the suburbs.  Sarah is an unhappy stay-at-home wife and Eddie works too much, eats too much and drinks too much.  Sarah has had enough so when he gets transferred to the Chicago office, she sees this as a chance to have a trial separation.  Apart, Eddie realizes that he's been a lousy husband and father and Sarah finds herself again.

This novella was originally published in 2005 in a trio of stories called This Christmas.  You can tell it's dated because someone puts a phone back in its cradle, when Sarah applies for jobs she finds in the newspaper she mails a cover letter and resume, and there is a reference to Demi Moore dating younger men.

I've read a few books by this author and this was okay.  It was a quick and easy read.  It's written in third person perspective with a focus on Sarah and Eddie.

Book ~ "Falling" (2016) Jane Green

From Goodreads ~ When Emma Montague left the strict confines of upper-crust British life for New York, she felt sure it would make her happy. Away from her parents and expectations, she felt liberated, throwing herself into Manhattan life replete with a high-paying job, a gorgeous apartment and a string of successful boyfriends. But the cutthroat world of finance and relentless pursuit of more began to take its toll. This wasn’t the life she wanted either.

On the move again, Emma settles in the picturesque waterfront town of Westport, Connecticut, a world apart from both England and Manhattan. It is here that she begins to confront what it is she really wants from her life. With no job and knowing only one person in town, she channels her passion for creating beautiful spaces into remaking the dilapidated cottage she rents from Dominic, a local handyman who lives next door with his six-year-old son.

Unlike any man Emma has ever known, Dominic is confident, grounded and committed to being present for his son whose mother fled shortly after he was born. They become friends and slowly much more, as Emma finds herself feeling at home in a way she never has before.

But just as they start to imagine a life together as a family, fate intervenes in the most shocking of ways. For the first time, Emma has to stay and fight for what she loves, for the truth she has discovered about herself, or risk losing it all.

Emma is in her mid-thirties.  She is originally from England but moved to New York about five years ago to get away from her upper class family's expectations of her ... to work until she got married, raise a family and then live the life of wealthy businessman's wife.  She was successful as a banker but took advantage of getting a package to change her life.  She moves to a beach town in Connecticut to figure out what to do.  She rents a rundown house from Dominic, a single father of a six-year-old son, Jesse, who lives next door.  Emma and Dominic become friends and eventually start dating and fall in love.

This is the fourth book I've read by this author and I liked it.  It's written in third person perspective with a focus on Emma.  I liked the writing style and thought it moved at a good pace.  There were lots of twists and dramas thrown in.  I liked the story line until towards the end when it took a turn which I didn't think was necessary.  As a head's up, there is some swearing.

For the most part, I liked Emma, Dominic and Jesse.  I found it inconsistent that Emma had been a confident successful banker and had no issues kicking men to curb yet was so unconfident at times where Dominic was concerned and jumped to conclusions about what was happening without talking to him first.  Also, she went on and on about not wanting the lifestyle her parents has expected of her yet she started to doubt whether she and Dominic had a future because they were so different.  Their parents were too extreme.  I thought Emma's mother was too snooty and old-fashioned, especially in today's day, considering her background.  I don't know why Dominic would allow his parents' abusive behavior in front of his son.

Book ~ "Summer Secrets" (2015) Jane Green

From Goodreads ~ June, 1998: At twenty seven, Catherine Coombs, also known as Cat, is struggling. She lives in London, works as a journalist, and parties hard. Her lunchtimes consist of several glasses of wine at the bar downstairs in the office, her evenings much the same, swigging the free booze and eating the free food at a different launch or party every night. When she discovers the identity of the father she never knew she had, it sends her into a spiral. She makes mistakes that cost her the budding friendship of the only women who have ever welcomed her. And nothing is ever the same after that. 

June, 2014: Cat has finally come to the end of herself. She no longer drinks. She wants to make amends to those she has hurt. Her quest takes her to Nantucket, to the gorgeous summer community where the women she once called family still live. Despite her sins, will they welcome her again? What Cat doesn’t realize is that these women, her real father’s daughters, have secrets of their own. As the past collides with the present, Cat must confront the darkest things in her own life and uncover the depths of someone’s need for revenge. 

When she was younger, Cat was a partier.  She drank a lot and would wake up in the morning wondering what she'd done and where she was.  After a blackout, she wakes up in Jason's bed.  He is a recovering alcoholic and tries to get her to go to AA meetings.  Around this time, she discovers that her father wasn't really her father.  She visits her birth father in the U.S. but it doesn't go well because of her drinking.  Her real father is also an alcoholic so she now knows where she gets it.

Sixteen years later, Cat is a divorced mother of a preteen and going through the 12 steps of AA.  The ninth one means she has to make amends to anyone she has hurt.  She heads back to the U.S. to apologize for her actions in 1998 to her half-sisters.  One of them accepts her again as her sister and they move on in their relationship.  The other wants no part of her.

This is the third book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  It's written in first person perspective in Cat's voice.  I liked the writing style and thought it moved at a good pace. It was an interesting story.  It jumps back and forth in time but the chapter headings let you know what the time period is.  As a head's up, there is some swearing.

I liked characters.  Cat had made some mistakes but in 2014 she's older and more mature and trying to move on as a mother.  She's sorry she lost out on having a relationship with her half-sisters and depriving her daughter the opportunity to know her aunts.  She has some tough obstacles to overcome and she faces them head on.

Book ~ "Tempting Fate" (2014) Jane Green

From Goodreads ~ When Gabby first met Elliott, she knew he was the man for her. In twenty years of marriage she has never doubted her love for him - even when he refused to give her the one thing she still wants most of all. But now their two daughters are growing up Gabby feels that time and her youth are slipping away. For the first time in her life she is restless. And then she meets Matt ...

Intoxicated by the way this young, handsome and successful man makes her feel, Gabby is momentarily blind to what she stands to lose on this dangerous path. And in one reckless moment she destroys all that she holds dear. 

Consumed by regret, Gabby does everything she can to repair the home she has broken. But are some betrayals too great to forgive?

Gabby is 42 and has been happily married to Elliott for about 20 years.  They have two daughters (ages 12 and 17).  One night she is out with her friends and she meets a younger man at a bar.  Matt is rich and successful and 10 years younger.  There is an instant intense attraction ... Matt makes Gabby feel young and beautiful again and she becomes obsessed with him.  They email each other constantly and meet up when he's in town.

Something happens during one of these visits that will change Gabby's life forever and she loses almost everything.

This is the second book I've read by this author.  While I didn't like or approve of some Gabby's actions, I liked the writing style and thought it moved along at a good pace.  It's written in third person perspective with a focus mainly on Gabby and Elliott's point of view.  The first part of the book builds up to what Gabby did and the second part deals with the ramifications for everyone.  I suspected the book was going to end the way it did and had hoped for a different ending (it was too neat and tidy and happy).  As a head's up, there is some swearing and mature activity so I would recommend this for a mature reader who has an open mind.

I didn't find Gabby especially likable.  It didn't sound like she had a bad life with Elliott and their daughters and I found it odd that she would be THAT attracted to Matt THAT instantly that she sneak around, thus risking everything she had.  And when she does lose almost everything because of her actions, I found it amazing that she assumed she could basically apologize to her family, they would get over it and they would carry on like nothing happened.  I didn't feel a lot of sympathy for her and felt she got what she deserved.  Elliott sounded like a nice guy.  I'm surprised he didn't suspect something more was going on when Gabby suddenly because extra amorous with him all of a sudden (because she was fantasizing about Matt).  Matt too sounded like a nice guy but I was surprised that he would maintain the "friendship" with Gabby considering she was married with children ... he was rich, gorgeous and famous and could have anyone he wanted.

All in all, I'd recommend this book.

Book ~ "Promises to Keep" (2010) Jane Green

From Penguin ~ Successful photographer Callie Perry thinks she has a pretty perfect life, although it may not be everyone's idea of happiness: a great job, lots of time with her daughters, but a workaholic husband. She couldn't be more unlike Steff, her younger sister, who has never held down a job—or a boyfriend—for more than six months. Walter and Honor, their divorced and perpetually feuding parents, have almost given up hope that Steff will ever learn what it is to be responsible … until they all receive a shocking email that changes their lives forever, and brings them together one extraordinary summer in Maine. Promises to Keep is about the hard choices we sometimes have to make, about having to be your parents' child long after you've grown up—and about the enduring nature of love.

This is a story of a close family who pulls together and becomes even closer when a tragedy starts to occur.

The characters are likable and the story progresses at a good pace. I did find the ending predictable so there weren't too many surprises for me.

At the end of every chapter, there are recipes that sound delicious. Steffi is a vegan chef so some are meatless.

I received a copy of this ebook at no charge in exchange for my honest review.