Lessons in Heartbreak
Izzie Silver, a New York model booker, longs to change the fashion world’s fixation on sickly thin beauties with an agency representing plus-sized models. She also longs to be with the love of her life, but he is married and unwilling to upset the world he has created for his sons. When her grandmother falls ill, Izzie returns to her hometown of Tamarin, Ireland, to weigh her choices. Kelly intertwines Izzie’s struggles with flashbacks of her grandmother’s life as a nurse during the London Blitz and her forbidden love for a young officer, and with scenes from the life of Izzie’s aunt, Anneliese, who is devastated by an affair between her husband and best friend. Kelly, author of Past Secrets (2006), crosses generations and continents to tell a sweeping, if uneven, story of love and betrayal. Readers will enjoy delving into the connections between the characters’ corresponding experiences. --Aleksandra Walker