Traps
This is the story of four women in distress. Dana is a high-tech security guard who discovers she is pregnant. The father is quite possibly dying of cancer. Vivian has twins, doesn’t know who the father is, and is living with a man who is using her to entertain his business associates. Lynn, a recovering alcoholic with one hand, runs a dog shelter on her farm. Jessica—movie star, mother of two, and budding agoraphobic—is burdened with a father who sells information about her on the Internet. Gradually, we discover that Dana is guarding Jessica, and Vivian applies for a job at Lynn’s dog farm. By the end of the book, all four of them have come together and eased one another’s distress. Bezos deftly weaves these disparate stories together and creates a moving tale of redemption. Some of the traps release a little too easily, but the characters are involving and the pacing so right that it doesn’t matter. --Elizabeth Dickie