Meet the wealthy Parker family from Chicago whose name is synonymous with prestige, money and power. There's May, the matriarch, now a widow after Percival's death. She still firmly holds the reins (and the purse strings) at the family's financial company, Parker Partnership. The eldest son, Justin, is 45 and married to Ashlin and has 2 daughters. He works directly with May. Christine is May's only daughter and she lives in New York for a reason. Trent is not involved in working for the family business and he sporadically teaches guitar and supports his wife, Shamira who has an aromatherapy shop - the family refers to them as "the hippies." The youngest son, Grayson, who once worked IT at the company abandoned Ria and their 5-year-old daughter and they've not seen or heard from him in years. Ria is meant to be an investigative journalist, but other than on the first page, she never actually goes to work or does any reporting. A collection of very different personalities. A very, but not unusual, dysfunctional family.
The story is told from the viewpoints of the Parker wives -- May, Ashlin, Shamira and Ria -- in alternating chapters. This gives the reader the opportunity to see how messed up each of the women is and how much they think of themselves. They all make excuses, rationalize their behavior, angst and dither while saying and doing stupid things. All claim to be intelligent and independent and strong. None of them is likeable. It is obvious that the reader is supposed to root for Ria from the outset. Everyone still invites her to family functions even though some don't like her but they feel bad that Grayson ran off and they want her and the daughter to feel the family connection. This is domestic drama full of all the bickering, secrets and lies that you might expect.
Ria is at work submitting an article she's written when the email comes in. It targets the Parker women and supposedly shows them in incriminating, compromising situations though the content of this email is not shared until revealed (dribbled out) in subsequent chapters. In any event, it alarms Ria and she's concerned about the safety and reputation of the family so she contacts a guy she knows to help her track the source of the email. No luck. So of course she has to find her ex, an expert hacker IT man, to return home to protect them all. Meanwhile, the women are experiencing some accidents that make them feel vulnerable. May is making big changes to the family purse strings and starts reining in their rampant spending as she prepares to sell the company and makes sure they know that she wants no scandals to surface.
On the story goes with more drama until it reaches the final reveal and it will come as no surprise to the reader. Since the characters were all basically not women I'd want to know or hang out with, I didn't really care what happened to any of them but I really was disappointed in the ending. You know, sometimes I do root for the "bad guy" or an unexpected twisty conclusion and I hate the goody goody perfect heroines. This read like a soap opera and it was entertaining to believe, for awhile, that the super rich have their own problems!
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - domestic drama with secrets and lies
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