Eileen Goudge - Domestic Affairs: A Novel

33. Domestic Affairs: A Novel by Eileen Goudge (2008)
Length: 437 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 15 May 2015
Finished: 19 May 2015
Where did it come from? From Bookmooch
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 4 August 2014
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and I have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

Domestic Affairs: A Novel is an intimate story of friendship lost and regained, old loves rekindled, and a baptism by fire which eventually leads three remarkable women to one very special redemption.

As children, Abigail and Lila were the best of friends. That was until betrayal fractured their friendship - seemingly forever - and Abigail was forced to leave the only home that she'd ever known. It all begins when Abigail's mother - the housekeeper for Lila's wealthy family - is summarily banished, effectively tearing Abigail away from Lila and casting her out of the place she once considered home.

Now, twenty-five years later, the girls' lives have each changed in ways they never would have expected when they were children. Abigail is now a self-made success story: a prolific author of cookbooks and television personality. Lila herself married well, and for the past decades she has lived the glittering life of a Park Avenue socialite. However, everything changes in the blink of an eye.

When Lila suffers a tragic reversal of fortune, she turns for help to her childhood friend. Penniless and all but unemployable, Lila approaches Abigail for a potential job. Abigail readily agrees and employs her old friend: as her housekeeper.

Yet revenge doesn't taste quite as sweet as Abigail once imagined. Lila's reentry into her life brings with it a host of unexpected complications and unanswered questions: Will Abigail be reunited with Lila's twin brother, Vaughn, her girlhood first love? Will a grief-stricken mother, Concepción - whose daughter perished in the fire that consumed Abigail's factory - succeed in crossing the border to track Abigail down and confront her about her daughter's death? Will Lila ever find love again after discovering that her husband took his own life?

In this sweeping and emotionally-gripping tale, Abigail, Lila, and Concepción are thrown together and forced to unite to save one another...as well as themselves. Along the way they discover that the forces that have torn their lives apart have also shaped them in ways they never could have imagined...

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; in my opinion, the story was intriguing and fast-paced, and the drama never waned. I was drawn into the story right away, and really connected with the characters and their various issues. While this book was definitely interesting reading for me, I still found the story to be just the slightest bit too long.

It may have been as a result of my short attention span, but I felt that the story could have been just as interesting if the story was about fifty pages shorter than it was. Overall, I would still give this book an A! 

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight