book review: ladies night

Grace Stanton’s life as a rising media star and beloved lifestyle blogger takes a surprising turn when she catches her husband cheating and torpedoes his pricey sports car straight into the family swimming pool.  Grace suddenly finds herself locked out of her palatial home, checking account, and even the blog she has worked so hard to develop in her signature style.  Moving in with her widowed mother, who owns and lives above a rundown beach bar called The Sandbox, is less than ideal.  So is attending court-mandated weekly "divorce recovery" therapy sessions with three other women and one man for whom betrayal seems to be the only commonality.  When their “divorce coach” starts to act suspiciously, they decide to start having their own Wednesday "Ladies' Night" sessions at The Sandbox, and the unanticipated bonds that develop lead the members of the group to try and find closure in ways they never imagined.  Can Grace figure out a new way home and discover how strong she needs to be to get there? 

Heartache, humor, and a little bit of mystery come together in a story about life’s unpredictable twists and turns.  Mary Kay Andrews' Ladies' Night will have you raising a glass and cheering these characters on. (from goodreads.com)

4/5 Okay. This was my first Mary Kay Andrews book. During my brief stint working at the library, I saw a lot of people check out this book, so I thought I'd see why. I started reading this book on Saturday afternoon, and I could not put it down. From the very beginning, it was just, "Oh my God, WHAT?!" Just one thing after another. I had the book in my hand while I put clothes in the washer. I read through dinner. I really did not put this book down for more than five minutes at a time until I finally finished it at 3am. I couldn't tell you the last time I stayed up all night reading a book. It was that exciting. That good. I needed to know what was going to happen next. Until the very end. The ending earned it a 4 instead of a 5 because I don't think I could possibly have been more disappointed. There was so much buildup, and then it just sort of fizzled out. A huge messy horrible thing ended up wrapped into a neat little package. She did earn bonus points for two of the characters having gone to Clemson, but not enough to make up for the ending. So, overall, I really enjoyed it, but the ending just sucked.