Publication Date: February 13th 2018 by Mira Books
About the Book:
They called themselves “the lucky ones.” They were seven children either orphaned or abandoned by their parents and chosen by legendary philanthropist and brain surgeon Dr. Vincent Capello to live in The Dragon, his almost magical beach house on the Oregon Coast. Allison was the youngest of the lucky ones living an idyllic life with her newfound family…until the night she almost died, and was then whisked away from the house and her adopted family forever.
Now, thirteen years later, Allison receives a letter from Roland, Dr. Capello’s oldest son, warning her that their father is ill and in his final days. Allison determines she must go home again and confront the ghosts of her past. She's determined to find out what really happened that fateful night--was it an accident or, as she's always suspected, did one of her beloved family members try to kill her?
But digging into the past can reveal horrific truths, and when Allison pieces together the story of her life, she'll learns the terrible secret at the heart of the family she once loved but never really knew.
A vivid and suspenseful tale of family, grief, love—and the dark secrets that bind everything together—Tiffany Reisz’s latest is enthralling to the final page.
My Thoughts:
Allison felt lucky when Dr. Vincent Capello rescued her from
the foster home nightmare she was in at the age of seven. Living in a big beautiful home right on the Oregon
Coast with a built family of brothers and sisters felt like a dream come true. Until
that dream came crashing down when she was pushed, or fell down the stairs and
woke up in the hospital. Her elderly
aunt came and whisked her away and she hadn’t seen or heard from her “family”
for thirteen years until her foster brother, Roland, writes to tell her Dr.
Capello is dying. She knows she must go
back and find the answers to questions that’ve haunted her for years. Did one of her “family” actually push her down
the stairs, and if so, why?
When Allison first comes onto the page, I was so very put
out for her after discovering the details of her relationship with Cooper McQueen,
a character from The Bourbon Thief. I quite
liked him in that book, but here I wanted to strangle the man! At any rate, his appearance is short-lived, and
I wasn’t so mad at him by the end. Still…grr!!!
But never mind McQueen, because Roland is the guy you want
to sit up and take notice of, anyhow.
The minute Roland and Allison reunite after thirteen years it’s like
they never separated. They had a fast,
and natural connection (if you can call a romance between an ex-foster brother
and sister natural, lol); so very
electric and passionate.
Deacon and Thora, her other brother and sister fell right
back into Allison’s life and she into theirs, and once again it feels like a
big happy family, no matter there’s a prevailing sadness over Dr. Capello’s
nearing death. But as Allison stays it’s
quickly apparent there are a lot of secrets and lies and uncovering them could
be very dangerous. And it is dangerous, because Allison can’t let the search for
the truth go.
It wasn’t hard to piece together a lot of the mystery right
off the bat, but some of it was a surprise and the whole story was captivating
even with knowing what was going on. Usually,
once I start reading one of Ms. Reisz’s stories I can hardly put it down, and
that was certainly the case with The Lucky Ones. There was a lot of moral gray areas here,
where you could see both sides of the story, understand why a person would take
the actions that they did, but at the same time you couldn’t help but think of
the violations those actions incurred, and some of the consequences were truly
horrible.
Once again Tiffany Reisz weaves and atmospheric tale of love,
betrayal, and mystery with the Oregon Coast and its broody weather there to provide
an even more haunting quality to the tale. Loved the
setting; it and the house almost felt like secondary characters here. The Lucky
Ones is the kind of story that’ll linger in your mind long after you finish
the last page.
4 Suns
