Review: The Life She Wanted

The Life She Wanted by Anita Abriel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Daughter of staff member at one of the Hudson River Mansions north of the City is included in social functions of the rich because the household has two children of the same age group. She, Pandora Carmichael , pals around with Virginia and her brother, Archie from early childhood to young womanhood when all three are at an age to head out into the world.

Pandora falls for one of the rich men of the group but he marries someone else--more appropriate. Later, she falls for yet another and marries him. A marriage of convenience that ends for them in scandal. And so it goes for her. Some readers consider that she is a strong heroine. I didn't feel that way. She is, unrealistically, in my experience very fortunate without much effort on her part.

Actually, most of the book is rather unrealistic and rather shallow. The homes of the rich that bordered both sides of the Hudson were and, those that still exist, are fabulous. But much like the palaces of Europe are today museums or owned by some Church or another or have become Schools. Much of those glory days were erased by the Crash and Depression both of which hardly touch the characters in this book. It is so incredibly superficial and the characters so one dimensional that I'm not even sure why I finished it.

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