Escape by Barbara Delinsky - a different format

Author: Barbara Delinsky
Publisher/Format: Doubleday(2011),Hardcover, 320 pages
Audio: Books on Tape, 12 hours 56 minutes
Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
Genre: Fiction
Subject: love and life in the fast lane
Source: Review copy from publisher

Last week I posted a guest review of this spirited fiction work by Barbara Delinsky. Just as Becky was finishing her read and handing me her review, I noticed it was available for an audio download from the public library. I always like to have a lighter piece of fiction available to listen to if I get into a reading funk, so I downloaded it to my MP3 player, and began listening while we were in California. I never got very far that week, since I was bone tired and kept falling to sleep as soon as I sat down, but I did enjoy it enough to want to finish it when I came home.

This is a chick lit story with a lot more meat than fluff. There is a feisty heroine, a super stud (as my friend Becky described him) husband, and equally dashing and dangerous former lover, and an early mid-life crisis. Emily, a young up and coming lawyer who has had it with money grabbing corporate antics, snaps one morning, walks out of her office, and doesn't look back. In addition to the story of her quest for meaning, Delinsky even builds a great deal of suspense with a well plotted mystery (no murder, just basic ugly cheating, embezzleing and kidnapping!)which increases the suspense of the story and adds to the relationship issues.

It was much more enjoyable than I expected. Well written, great character development and motivation, and a charming story. It's still going to fall under the chick-lit heading---I don't see too many men being able to relate well to it-- but it's not brain candy. There's definite intellectual nutritional value.

I especially enjoyed it in audio. The New England accents are quite authentic, although they may in fact be hard to understand for those not familiar with the many different dialects of Yankee. All in all though, Barbara Delinsky has certainly landed on my list of authors to watch for.