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What was going to happen was apparent 10 chapters before it actually did. I couldn't find anything good about this book. The plot (such as it was) didn't make sense. The dialog was stilted and unbelievable. The characters were two-dimensional and predictable.It's just too bad that Laura couldn't have been revealed to be the sneaky tax cheat on the last page.
Delinsky's trademark has always been smart and sensitive handling of family dynamics and she doesn't disappoint here. The Daphne character is endearing.
I know Delinsky is generally pegged as a romance writer, but this is not a "romance novel" per se. Not a fairytale ending, but then, Barbara Delinsky rarely writes them that way.
The characters are incredibly complex, likeable, but with human flaws. As far as Delinsky's work is concerned, this was spot on.
Still disappointing. I'm kind of disappointed that the scumbag didn't get his own in the end, but I suppose he wasn't *really* evil.
I guess. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense with a bit of romance thrown in.
Too much plot and other stuff getting in the way ;) This is a very sad, very nostalgic, and very touching story.
Laura was pathetic and her children were very annoying. I have read several Barabara Delinsky books that were good--this one was very disappointing. I found the characters to be very annoying. When her son is accused of rape he openly admits to sleeping around and no one bats an eye. Then she goes off for 5 days and leaves her daughter with the grandmother (who we all know will be too busy to pay attention to the girl) and comes back to find that her daughter has lost her virginity.I couldn't like or relate to any of these characters--Lake News and An Accidental Woman are much better books.
But it seemed like nothing was tied up at the end. Delinsky didn't provide enough back-story on, what seemed to me, to be a very together lady-lawyer (Daphne) and how it was that she (Daphne) a smart and educated lawyer, could come to seem so flaky by the end of the novel via her "betrayal" of central character, Laura.Even Laura's Mother comes across as cold and unfeeling towards her daughter during this tragic time. The whole premise of this Barbara Delinsky novel, is that the reader wants to find out what happens to Laura Frye's husband. I like a definite and absolute happy ending, like in Barbara Delinsky's 1998 novel "Coast Road".In all fairness, this was an earlier effort of Delinsky's written in 1991, and it was one of those straight-to-paperback novels written before Delinsky was even writing hardbacks. This is a Barbara Delinsky novel, and an early one at that, so you know there are going to be racy sex scenes. There is no real payoff for making it through this rather longer Delinsky novel. For instance, central character, Laura, is not only betrayed by her missing husband, but also by her best friend, Daphne.
Well, not everyone. The book opens with central character Laura Frye's husband abandoning her, and as the book closes, Laura's husband is still on the run, (he's running from the Authorities on a Tax Fraud charge, but also wanted out of the marriage) but has simply changed his name.I'm not saying this woudn't be a worthwhile read for hardcore Delinsky fans. Does everyone and anyone simply have it in for poor Laura. I just don't know how wise it is to construct a long novel around a single problem, drag your readers endlessly and repetitively through that problem, right up till the end, and then not even satisfactorily tie things up in a definite manner. There are some situations that are hard to believe here, also. Certainly not Laura's lusty brother-in-law, for whom Laura engages in a steamy affair with. Couldn't do without those.Again, I would say this is not one of the better Delinsky novels, those being: "Three Wishes" "Coast Road" and "Shades of Grace"---all which are much better reads than "A Woman Betrayed".
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