The Fairbairn Fortunes

In this aggressively melodramatic novel, Parker (The Granville Legacy) leaps from tragedy to tragedy in the lives of the Fairbairn sisters. If it wasn’t for bad luck, these women would have no luck at all. The story opens in 1913 England with sisters Laura, Diana, Flora, Catriona, Lizzie, Georgie, and Beattie gathered for Christmas. By 1914, Lizzie’s husband discovers she’s having an affair with a much younger man, who later dies in WWI. Fast-forward to 1919, and it’s Beattie’s husband who is having an affair with his secretary, which ends tragically. In 1920, the girls’ mother dies and Catriona, the sister relegated to looking after her mother, is devastated, as her mother’s will dictates the sale of the home Catriona thought she’d stay in forever. Shortly thereafter, Beattie nearly dies in childbirth trying to give her husband the son he’s always longed for. There’s not much opportunity for plot in between all of the tragedies, a series of horrible events tied together only by blood relation. The women’s children are selfish brats and the half-hearted ending sputters to a stop without resolving many issues. The book is marketed as historical romance, but there’s simply nothing here for fans of the genre. (June)