Nearly 80, selfish Gloria Goldberg Garrison has driven away the chosen successor of her 11 million dollar beauty business in Sante Fe. She summons her three grown grandchildren to her house for the weekend to see which one (and only one) she will pick to abandon their life in New York to rule the beauty empire when she dies. Even though she hasn't had contact with them since they were 13, she's shocked when they arrive and each of them tells her they're not interested. The story begins when the grandchildren, twins Matt and Daisy, and their cousin Raquel decide to stay for the rest of the weekend and get to know their grandmother.

A look into an extremely dysfunctional family with skeletons under the porch.

I enjoyed seeing Gloria struggle to understand how and why other people value things over money and the pursuit of it.

First of all, I'm still not clear on a few things that happened in the book. I feel like parts were just skimmed over quickly. At the same time, I feel like each chapter slowed down time.

Throughout the weekend, Gloria is constantly cruel and insulting. I have a hard time believing that anyone would put up with that much bullshit for no reason.

I found the grandchildren annoying and whiney.

The ending. Not only am I unclear on how it came to be, but I also don't find it possible.

Disappointed. The plot is good. Everything else is not.

Susan Isaacs has written numerous novels that I've enjoyed. This is the first to disappoint.

The story unfolds in rotating first person accounts by each of the four characters. It felt like each person was pressing the pause button and going back to give a boring, pointless history lesson before continuing the present explanation. Then the next person would flash forward without acknowledging the previous events. It left me confused.

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Created Jan 11, 2019 at 3:56pm • Submit your own review...