Dune Road: A Novel

Some light fluffy fiction after the weirdo fundamentalist Mormons.

Loved it...such a great read. I just discovered Jane and can't wait to read more of her work.
This was a joy to read and I would highly recommend it. I love the way Jane writes.

This book presents itself as, I quote, ‘the book to pack in beach bags next summer’.
Now, my definition of the beach book is: fluffy, romantic, easy, and possibly with a little mystery twist.
Dune Road, however, does not check many, if any, of these categories. As the other books I have read from Green so far, this book seems to be tainted by an unhealthy, chilling darkness.
This review will have spoilers, but they are here to make you aware of what you are getting yourself into, as the book description will make sure not to tell you.
For a starter, what the description does not tell you is the amount of alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and moral degradation present in the book. Here are the details (I am not putting them into spoiler-mode because I think you should really read this before getting into the book. However, if you don’t want to, just do not read further):

Annabelle, the secret sister: She’s an alcoholic who used every possible kind of drug, and went into rehab after overdosing. She has rejection issues since their mother refused to ever get involved with her. She steps onto our heroin's doorstep and tries to take everything from her. She ends up being rejected even further and everyone tries to keep her as far away as possible.
The writer’s mystery: the mystery here is basically that he and his wife were a couple of swingers who hated each other, and he was happy when she had an accident and died.
Tracy, one of the supposed friends: This part definitely sunk the book and pinned it to the not-to-read shelf. She was a victim of domestic abuse from her first husband. So after escaping him, going through a second husband she didn't love, who had a fetish for bondage parties, and finally settling down in a small Connecticut town starting a new life and a business… what does she do? She Facebooks the abusive husband and invites him back into her life. When he obviously becomes abusive again, she goes along with his plot to steal money from the wealthiest man in town, i.e. our writer. Not only she tries to steal money from some of her best friends as well, she also feeds our heroine to her abusive ex-husband as a part of their plot, setting up their first meeting and never guarding her friend from the danger she’s getting into. Well, at the end of the book, she actually falls in love with the writer and confesses everything. The part that enraged me the most is that nobody holds her accountable for her deeds, they do not even as much as blink. Not even the friend that was fed to the abusive man and threated by Tracy like a servant when Tracy starts dating the famous writer! Seriously?! Tracy’s excuse is that she was afraid he would kill her, to stay on the ‘fun and fresh’, so what? You send your best friend to be killed instead? What if she did get sucked in? You lie to everybody because you are the victim? NO. If she asked for help in the end, she was able to do it also before, instead of manipulating everybody, with lies and deception. Annabelle the sister gets crucified, and Tracy is excused in the full? I’m sorry it doesn’t work for me. She even gets married to the millionaire writer.
However, can somebody please explain where is the, I quote again from the book description, ‘fun and fearless adventure’?
There was no fun, and every character was scared to death of one thing or the other. On the other hand, there was plenty of sadness, degradation, violence, and creepiness. KEEP AWAY.

I continue to read Jane Green’s books, thinking they have to get better. So weird, as feel she always sets up the books for a great novel and likeable characters. However, she continues to talk over and over about feelings from the characters as almost overboard, and then forgets the actual story? There is never much of a story or substance, it is more about what this one thinks and that one with lots of drama.
I did like this one better than some of the others as listened to audio as Cassandra Campbell, is easy on the ears and enjoy her performance. All Jane Green’s leave you feeling frustrated with the storylines and unnerving at times. Maybe one day I will run across a real story!

I don’t know why I am surprised that I do indeed like the occasional chick–lit. This was definitely in that category, but surprisingly, right off the bat it was engaging, relatable and very predictable. There were a couple of “woest me” moments, but those I overlooked in my pursuit of trying to put a face to the reclusive Best Selling Author and trying to stop thinking of the late Kathryn Joosten whenever the delightful character Edie stepped on the page. A good little summer read.

Jane Green books seem to have two distinct personalities for me: there’s the funny and readable (mainly the earlier books) and then there’s the annoying and predictable (her more recent books). I loved Bookends and still have the highly recommended Jemima J to read, but I think I’ll stay away from her newer books in future.Dune Road is also known as Girl Friday in other countries. I like Girl Friday better, even though it doesn’t really fit in with the tone of the book for me. You see, Kit is a famous author’s ‘girl Friday’ in that she makes him coffee, does office work for him etc. But the book is not really about the relationship between them. Kit is recently divorced and coming to terms with single mother life. There’s also some aspects about her friends – Charlie has to face the realities of the GFC (not every book written in the last few years needs a GFC crisis – authors please take note!) and Tracey, looks like being a schemer – or is she a victim? Throw in a sweet elderly neighbour, a new boyfriend, a mysterious relative and a distant mother and you have all the plotlines in the world to play with. The thing I found though was that Green doesn’t make use of these plotlines, in particular, Tracey’s situation. There was so much room for emotional blackmail, some serious arguments and near-misses. However, it is all glossed over sweetly and superficially without the players realising the seriousness of the situation. The ends are not only tied up, they’re wrapped into a giant bow. So much more use could have been made of the lost relative storyline – they were portrayed again without depth. This could have been a great book if a few less threads were dealt with and the characters broke out of the stereotypical moulds. Now I know why Borders had this on the bargain pile.Unfortunately, I’ve read it all before and there’s new reading ground for me to break, so I think I’ll stay away from Green’s new books for some time. I’ll seek out Jemima J, but that’s it. Am I too old to appreciate chick lit?

Starts off slowly with choppy writing, but then the plot picks up and gets interesting with a long lost sister thrown into the mix, a famous author, an abusive ex, and a couple of love stories thrown in. Not bad but I like her earlier efforts better.

Dune Road is sort of predictable and also very familiar. Perhaps because my brother works in finance, lives in Easton, Conn. with four young children (two girls and two twin three-year-old boys) and is very successful. Or maybe because my family went through similar financial situations in the 90s. I also grew up in Westport, Conn (fictional Highfield) until my parents divorced. (My mom read the book after me and said: "I feel like I'm right back in Westport.") Instead of some of the simpler, romantic stories of past novels (Mr. Maybe, Swapping Lives), Dune Road has too many subplots at once. Recently divorced Kit (who used to be a dissatisfied “Wall Street Widow”: I actually wish Green had explained this term a bit more because New York Magazine certainly does not) embarks on her new life in Highfield, a rather chic town on Connecticut’s Gold Coast, as a working mom who still harbors feelings for her ex-husband Adam. She starts a new job as a personal assistant to famous mystery writer Robert McClore, who lives in a secluded home on Dune Road. Of course, he has a secret (a 30-something-year-old one). Kit’s best friend Charlie and her husband Keith face the aftermath of Wall Street’s bust when Keith loses his high-level finance position. Something that really bothered me about this is that although Keith works in the finance industry, his own financial advisor told him that he didn’t need to have any savings. “So they have never quite managed to put anything away. They are only forty, after all, and his financial advisor said he has plenty of time to worry about that. They have small SEP IRAs, and of course he has had his stock over all these years.” Super financial advisor! Well done. As all this is going on, several mysterious people are charming their way into Kit’s life. She’s gullible and doesn’t suspect that most want more than friendship. (“Kit has always secretly longed to be the type of woman men bought flowers for, and having never been that woman, not really, she is starting to discover jus how seductive it is.”) So much for that edginess she may have developed as the wife of a Wall Street financier. Throughout the pages of Dune Road, way too much happens simultaneously. I felt that much of the book was a re-tread of stories in the news or things I’d heard before. Green is trying for a mystery and romance in one book and it just doesn’t work very well. I had one ‘mystery’ figured out at pg. 160 (I don’t know if that means I’m super smart or the writing is weak). Dune Road is not a page turner which is generally what you expect of a Green novel and what most people look for in a summer read. Green fails to create characters that you care about all that much in the end. Save your money on this one. Borrow it from the library or from a friend.

Early in the book, I found it quite difficult to follow the plot. The author flowed back and forth between the past and present, that I wasn’t sure if the next scene is taking place now or had already happened. It was quite unsettling for me as I thought the storyline was very choppy.Around page 150 or so, I found my groove and plowed right through it. As I was reading, I thought the plot was very predictable (I knew how Kit’s story would end within the first pages of the book) and I didn’t find the “mysterious” characters to be all that mysterious.As Kit struggles with building a new life post divorce, she’s also questioning the intentions of those who claim to have her best interests at heart. Ms. Green does an excellent job of reminding the reader that not everyone is as perfect as he/she may appear. Inviting someone new in your life may come with consequences. That being said, one must continue to move forward and not allow others to derail you from doing so.I’ve been anticipating reading this book for awhile now, as I’ve read and heard great reviews about Ms. Green’s books. Although this was an okay read for me, I have added The Other Woman, Swapping Lives, The Beach House and Second Chance to my TBR List.

excellent read. Jane has produced a believeable and interesting story about a writer who's wife died after going overboard,Kit, who is divorced and moves to his town. She works for him, has a sister show up after many years, has an ex husband who seems to get better with divorce. Then there's Tracy who teaches Yoga but carries a disturbing past with an abusive guy.