"Those Girls" by Chevy Stevens

I received a copy of "Those Girls" by Chevy Stevens through the Goodreads First Reads program.  This novel is written in two parts and my opinion of each differs greatly.  

The first section deals with the lives of three sisters from a terribly abusive home.  The abuse becomes critical one evening and leads to an event that sends their lives spinning out of control.  I could not stop reading through the first half of the book.  The terrifying narrative has no holes, is full of suspense, and has well developed, plausible characters.

The second half of the book was a struggle for me.  I strongly disagree with the author's decision to change the narrator to a completely new character, and was unable to overcome my dislike of the new point of view.  The characters that were so well developed in the early stages of the book suddenly lapsed into caricatures of their former selves.  The second half plot was serviceable, but nowhere near the gripping first half.  I rate this between a 3.5 and 4.0 on a five point scale.

"Summer Secrets" by Jane Green

"Summer Secrets" by Jane Green was the latest review book in my stack, although I cannot recall if it came directly through the publisher or through Goodreads.  In any case, this was a book I did not anticipate enjoying - the blurb on the back led me to believe I was about to sit down with a chick-lit, beach fluffy, finished in two hours type book.  Not the case.  While parts exist that I could have done without, this was mostly a nice surprise.  What makes this worth recommending is the main character's struggle with alcoholism.  Green does an especially insightful job illustrating the immediate and long-lasting damage done by alcoholics to themselves and to their families.  Several nice plot twists tie everything together until the end, which I found too sappy, predictable and unrealistic.  Overall, this one is worth the read.