Author: T. Greenwood
Genre: Literature/Fiction
Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496739322
Kensington Publishing
282 Pages
$16.95; $9.99 Amazon
October 25, 2022
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Living peacefully in Vermont, Ryan Flannigan is shocked when a text from her oldest friend alerts her to a devastating news item. A controversial photo of her as a pre-teen has been found in the possession of a wealthy investor recently revealed as a pedophile and a sex trafficker -- with an inscription to him from Ryan's mother on the back.
Memories crowd in, providing their own distinctive pictures of her mother Fiona, an aspiring actress, and their move to the West Village in 1976. Amid the city's gritty kaleidoscope of wealth and poverty, high art, and sleazy strip clubs, Ryan is discovered and thrust into the spotlight as a promising young actress with a woman's face and a child's body. Suddenly the safety and comfort Ryan longs for is replaced by auditions paparazzi, and the hungry eyes of men of all ages.
Forced to reexamine her childhood, Ryan begins to untangle her young fears and her mother's ambitions, and the role each played in the fraught blackout summer of 1977. Even with her movie career long behind her, Ryan and Fiona are suddenly the object of uncomfortable speculation -- and Fiona demands Ryan's support. To put the past to rest, Ryan will need to face the painful truth of their relationship, and the night when everything changed.
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Ryan Flannigan lives quietly in Lost River, Vermont, with her 18-year-old daughter Sasha. They've been happy, and the only thing that Ryan is worried about is Sasha going on a road trip by herself to visit her father in California.
But then the text came...the one she didn't answer. Then another, and another, and finally a text that told her to read the attached newspaper article. Ryan suddenly felt sick. Her childhood friend Gilly was reaching out to her -- to tell her about the article so she would hear it from him. It nearly crushed what was left of her soul. Then, to find out why the article was printed -- along with a long-ago photograph of her, just before she became an actress -- sickened her inside. She couldn't think; she didn't want to believe it.
But the worst was to find out that someone she loved was gone. Forever. And the reason why hurt her beyond hurt; beyond pain. The only thing she could do was to protect Sasha from this. Easier said than done. Sasha already knew; and insisted that they go to the funeral in New York. The place she never wanted to be again....
When I began this book I really didn't know what to expect, since I have never read anything by this author (sorry). At first it seemed a book about a simple life, and a happy woman. But then I realized that she was not. She was damaged, and trying to raise her daughter to be happy, healthy, and whole. The damage, such as it were, was done by her mother -- a mother who appeared to care for her and protect her; but she learned that her mother's ambitions were far more important, and she was willing to trade her daughter's talent as if it were her own. It was Fiona who wanted to be the famous actress, and Ryan who would be in the background.
But now things had changed. And while Ryan was discovering just how and why the photograph came to be in the possession of a noted pedophile. Someone her mother knew but she herself only peripherally.
Ryan's final journey to New York takes her back and forth between Lost River and Westbeth. When she was a happy child at one and a hurt, confused pre-teen at the other. Growing up but not growing up. It's a difficult read at times, sad at others, and even comforting once in a while. Ryan needs to finally find her own closure, and we follow her thoughts as she reminisces and thinks about the here and now. Her love for her daughter and her friends. Finding out the truth isn't easy; but then again, it never is. No more so for Ryan.
When the ending comes we walk away with a feeling of calm, grateful that Ryan has finally found her peace. The price was high, but she has everything she ever wanted in this present and future.
I received an advance copy of this book from Kensington Publishing and Between The Chapters, but this in no way influenced my review.
More on T. Greenwood's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/t-greenwood/
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