Rita Mae is frightened of her own shadow. Having lived with an extremely abusive husband and with great courage sought some kind of freedom she lives in constant fear of being found out. Her character is one which today most of us would have trouble dealing with. Why couldn't she break away earlier when she had the chance, why wait so long, why be so frightened when opportunity was there to break free.

No one can understand the psyche of someone else and that becomes the bottom line even in this novel.

In another small town Dorrie tries to escape from her own history. She gets up one morning in a small hotel not knowing how or why she is there. Why is there a bloodstain on her coat, why has she drunk so much whiskey. Many questions for which there seems to be no answers.

Both women are terribly insecure, they do not know whom to trust and how to unravel their past and face the future.

Though as one reviewer said the story is said to be set in the 1980s, it was very old fashioned. Maybe the two main characters were styled on women in the early 1920s and so it seemed very conventional.

The story did not hold my interest at all until almost at the end. I do not like DNF stories and have very seldom kept a book aside so I did continue. The good part was in the ending.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Lake Union Publishing.