Lovers and Liars

December 1, 2023

Ward, best-selling author of Reese's Book Club pick The Jetsetters, again mines fraught family relationships when three sisters and their toxic mother reunite for a wedding weekend at an English castle estate. Secrets have separated them, but their reunion might just give them the courage to make new choices. Prepub Alert.

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April 1, 2024
Three sisters, their clueless partners, their awful mother, and many festering secrets gather at a castle in Britain for a wedding. Actually, the wedding seems to be canceled in the book's prologue, as Sylvie Peacock dashes off a note to her intended, a well-built English book lover named Simon Rampling, informing him that she's leaving, heading back to her adored job as a school librarian in Miami. Among the reasons: Ten years ago, her marriage to the school's choir director ended in his untimely death, and she's still not over it. But there's something Sylvie doesn't know about her husband's demise that both of her older sisters, Cleo and Emma, have been keeping from her, something that won't make a ton of sense when it finally comes out, but rigorous sense-making is not the strong point, or probably even the intention, of this novel. For example, middle sister Emma has supposedly been doing well working for a Mary Kay-type marketing company but has actually spent every penny in the family coffers including her husband's retirement account--more than $24,000--on Sweet Nothings' lingerie, lotions, lube, and sex toys. (Okay, he didn't notice the bank statement, but what about all those vibrators?) While Emma is in England with husband Rich and sons Guinness and Jameson in tow, her debt, recorded at chapter openings, almost doubles, another thing not to think about too hard. Fortunately, Ward provides plenty of distractions: agendas, menus, British history lessons, disgusting-sounding medieval foods--"Cup of posset, my friend? It's not so rancid once your taste buds adjust"--literary references, perfume formulas, and juicy sex scenes. Male characters don't get into this book unless they know what a tongue is for (even Simon's elderly father has a much younger girlfriend, though those specifics are left to our imaginations). The development of the relationships among Cleo, Emma, and Sylvie, who have not emerged from their childhoods unscathed but are each struggling toward authenticity and happiness, provides an emotional anchor for all the hoopla. A rollicking if slapdash romp, with a poignant story about sisterhood at its core.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2024
Miami school librarian Sylvie Peacock is getting married to her dream man, Simon (they met on the bookish social media platform Checkoutmyshelves), at his ancestral home, Mumberton Castle in England. Probably. She's having second thoughts, worried about the memory of her first husband, Alexander, who died tragically 10 years earlier. She is all but estranged from her sisters--middle sister Emma is busy in Montana with her husband, two sons, and mounting debt, and eldest Cleo, a high-powered defense attorney, is keeping a secret about Alexander's death--but they all descend upon England for the wedding. Simon has pulled out all the stops--falconry demonstrations, historic costume photo shoots, period-authentic menus--but is it enough to make the marriage go forward? Alternating narration among the three sisters, Ward's latest (after The Lifeguards, 2022) employs a deceptively breezy tone to unpack the Peacock sisters' childhood trauma, especially surrounding their narcissistic mother, Donna. The result is a family comedy that ends a bit neatly, sure, but readers will be cheering, nonetheless. A sweet testament to familial and romantic love.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 13, 2024
In Ward’s engrossing latest (after The Lifeguards), three American sisters confront their family’s complicated dynamics on the eve of the youngest’s second wedding. Miami school librarian Sylvie Peacock has been on her own since her husband died 10 years earlier, but when she meets wealthy Englishman Simon Rampling on an app for book lovers, she’s charmed by his kindness and passion for bird photography, and swept off her feet by stories of his family castle in northern England. Though part of her feels like she’s betraying her late husband, she accepts his marriage proposal after a mere three months of dating. Her glamorous oldest sister, Cleo, learns shortly before traveling to England for the wedding that Simon derived his wealth from a divorce, and itches to tell Sylvie the truth. Another narrative thread involves middle sister Emma, who’s risked her own family’s well-being by sinking their savings into a pyramid scheme. Much drama ensues at Simon’s castle when the sisters converge along with their narcissistic mother, Donna. Ward’s character work is top-notch, conveying Cleo’s savior complex and Donna’s negative impact on her children. This is a cut above the standard for women’s fiction. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary.