Shallow water for Beach readers

 

I Take You

By Eliza Kennedy

Lily Wilder is the image of a young, beautiful, successful New York Lawyer, gallivanting through cases, and men, including her senior partner, with such energy and verve that her approach to work, alcohol and men is the norm.  It is only when she decides to marry handsome archeologist Will that the assumption is brought into question.  Can she really settle down, and limit herself to one man?

The questions are explored as Lily spends the week before her wedding with family and friends.  Her bridesmaids and her unconventional collection of mother/stepmothers/grandmother try to convince Lily that she should call off the wedding, each for her own reasons.  Lily’s father, who has married each of the three powerful women, and divorced them as one casts off last season’s coat, complicates Lily’s decisions by giving her a glimpse of where her appetites originated, and what the future may hold for her. 

The quest to discover if she should or should not marry Will plays in counterpoint to Lily’s work on a high profile case for her law firm, for which she is unqualified and poorly prepared.  The reader will continue to turn the pages to see if Lily implodes both personally and professionally, or if by some miracle, everything will indeed work out.

The book is well written, especially the characters, and is sprinkled both with humorous situations and clever turns of phrase.  Lily’s grandmother is delightful and one of the only seemingly honest characters in the book.  It falls down a bit on emotional depth… Lily is so flighty it is hard to take her seriously when she asks the big question: should she marry Will.  It could have delved deeper into the issue of sexual expectations for both genders; instead, Will lectures Lily, and thus the reader, on historical and sociological implications.  At this point, I just want these characters to feel something…even if it is heartbreak.  Perhaps it is the one week timeline that the book limits itself to, but everything feels as though it happens too fast.  The way Lily’s life is portrayed gives the same impression, and you just want to tell her to slow down.

A great beach read, but don’t expect to ponder it long!

More info about I Take You at lilywilder.com.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.