by Barbara Delinsky
Doubleday, $25.95, 308 pages
Sometimes having it all just isn’t enough. Just ask Emily Aulenbach; a beautiful lawyer married to a handsome, hardworking husband in Barbara Delinsky’s Escape. By all accounts, their life in New York City should be exciting and fulfilling, but instead Emily feels empty and alone. Searching for answers, Emily walks away from it all and flees to Bell Valley: a quaint New England town nestled in the mountains of New Hampshire. Ten years ago the Red Fox Bed-and-Breakfast in Bell Valley had been a haven to Emily, offering her serenity in the flurry of post College graduation. Would she find the answers she was looking for in this quaint New England town and was she willing to risk losing the very life she had worked so hard to attain?
Although everyone can relate on one level or another to Emily – who wouldn’t want to “unplug” from their life once in awhile – the story doesn’t ring true. There are plenty of animals and humans needing rescue, but the parallels are obvious and contrived. The characters lack depth and other than a blip of excitement near the end of the novel, Emily’s self discovery is predictable and uninspiring.
Michelle Lockhart