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Jan 21, 2012

Chiara rated it:

Right from the start, I was captivated by Holly LeCraw's debut novel The Swimming Pool. It was filled with intrigue and mystery as two families - the Atkinson's and the McClatchey's, reveal their interwoven stories. It begins with Marcella Atkinson, divorced from her husband Anthony and estranged from her daughter Antonia. Her family and the McClatchey's share the same location at Cape Cod for their summer getaways. It has been seven years since Cecil McClatchey and Marcella began their affair, More...

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Apr 28, 2011

Diane rated it:

I didn't think of this book as a beach read at all. In fact when I read the back cover for it, I didn't get the impression that it was supposed to be. The book has all of the elements for it though; murder, secrets, betrayals and forgiveness.

Jed and Callie have a summer home on Cape Cod, the home belonging to their parents. Their mom, Betsy,was murdered and it is suspected that their dad,Cecil, committed suicide. They both have had trouble dealing with these deaths and the circumstanc More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Ellene rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 23, 2010

Mary rated it:

Betrayals and Secrets Galore

Jed McClatchey is haunted by his mother's unsolved murder and his dad's death in a car accident a short time later. He goes to the family's summer place on Cape Cod to help his beloved sister Callie, who has just given birth to her second child and is suffering from post-partum depression. While going through some boxes in his late father's closet he finds a woman's bathing suit and suddenly remembers who the suit belonged to, the beautiful M More...

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Jun 16, 2010

Chocolate & Croissants rated it:

is a book I should have liked, (family secrets, an unsolved mystery, illicit affairs, romance) but did not. Now I did not dislike it enough to put it down and just stop reading it. I had to finish it. It was almost like a bad relationship. You know you should walk away-you just cannot. You keep on going back for more. I liked parts of the book and then disliked it. Liked it again, disliked it. Yet I needed to know how it finished.

I found the book to be rather disjointed and distract More...

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May 11, 2010

Audrey rated it:

NOTE: I actually give this book 3 1/2 stars.

It's really hard for me to know what to say about this book. On the one hand, I quite liked it. The story was fresh and interesting, the writing style was slightly poetic and beautiful, and the characters were complex and, well, not likable, but enjoyable. It was easily read, easily enjoyed, and and the time passed by nicely while I was reading.

Which makes me want to call this a fluff read. While I was reading, I felt like it ju More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2010

Rebekah rated it:

Many years ago, the Atkinson family vacation yearly on Cape Cod, enjoying the beach and barbecues. While everything looked perfect, tension and depression lurked beneath the surface as Marcella suffers multiple miscarriages, and Anthony escapes Marcella’s grief by throwing his attention into their young daughter, Toni.

Now, Toni Atkinson, a college student, has a new summer job nannying for a family on the Cape — a job that has, suddenly and unbeknownst to her, stirred up a wealth o More...

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Apr 16, 2010

Theresa rated it:

Somewhat of a summer romance and mystery, The Swimming Pool was quite well written and followed two families and a summer at the Cape. A nice summer theme with a beach and summer homes, would interest most for a quick summer read.

Personally, I didn't care for the book. I'm not big on soap operas and for me, this storyline had the same qualities as a daytime soap. With a "Cougar", a love triangle that I found pretty distasteful, and numerous descriptive sex scenes, I j More...

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Apr 08, 2010

Kathy rated it:

The quick lines on "The Swimming Pool" are likely to focus on the affair between a young man, Jed, and his now-deceased father's mistress, the beautiful and aloof Marcella. What moved me about the story, though, was the exploration of relationships within families -- parents and adult children, siblings, ex-spouses. Jed and his sister Callie are orphaned as young adults by the murder of their mother and death of their father, all within a matter of months. We meet them several years ou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Maree ♫ Light's Shadow ♪ rated it:

*Disclosure: I received this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

So. I did a bad thing and judged this book by its cover. I thought it was going to be pretty medium, and while it turned out better than I had expected, it still didn't garner a 5 star read from me. But the cover version I had seriously made it seem like a self-published gig, so I'm glad to see better version images online.

The story was sadly beautiful, well written and fully fleshed with real characters More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Paula rated it:

Hmmm...what to say about this book. It sounded interesting and I was looking forward to reading it - the plot was a seven year old murder that somehow was tangled around the lives of two different families, a clandestine love affair and summer on Cape Cod. Sounded intriguing. What I found was a disjointed novel describing the events that lead up to the murder, interspersed with present-day drama from the families involved. I felt that the author didn't do a good job of jumping from one time More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Pam rated it:

It started out great! Seemed like it might be a good mystery and then a few pages later, the author's description of Marcella in the garden was so absolutely perfect that if I could write about my experiences in the garden, I would have said the exact same thing!
Unfortunately these few pages got my expectations so high, the book couldn't really live up to them. She is quite good at descriptions and I could feel the heat and the emotions but I thought she could have toned down the sexual sc More...

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Nov 01, 2010

Meaghan rated it:

This is a story about an affair and a subsequent murder in Cape Cod. The book weaves in and out between the past and the present. In the past Marcella carries on an affair with Cecil at her summer residence in Cape Cod. The affair continues after the summer but eventually Cecil calls it off. The breakup happens just before Cecil's wife is found murdered in the swimming pool. Not long after this Cecil dies in a car accident. Fast forward to the present and Marcella's daughter Toni is working for More...

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Jun 09, 2010

Laurel-Rain rated it:

The devastation and aftermath of family tragedy is at the heart of this story.

It begins around a swimming pool on a hot summer day in a village on Cape Cod. We meet friends, but specifically, we zero in on two couples: Cecil and Betsy and Anthony and Marcella.

What happens over the next few weeks and months will forever alter all their lives. First, inexplicably, Cecil and Marcella begin an affair.

Then later, on a November evening, death greets Betsy when she a More...

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May 16, 2011

StephanieRose rated it:

I actually give The Swimming Pool 3.5 stars, but since that's not an actual option, I decided it was closer to 3. I read this book in 2 days over the past weekend. It was both a quick and intriguing read. I loved the setting. Anything that takes place on the coast of New England always grabs my attention. I can practically feel the sand in my toes and the sound of the waves crashing! Maybe it's because I live in a city that isn't even remotely close to the ocean...but I'm digressing!
Despite More...

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Apr 02, 2010

Amy rated it:

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

There have been many many books over the years that deal with the subject of adultery and one could say that there isn't much left to tell on the subject. With THE SWIMMING POOL, I was pleasantly surprised to find that indeed there IS more to say. Seven years before, Marcella Atkinson had an affair with Cecil McClatchey, a fellow vacationer at the group of summer homes on the Cape. On the night that their affair ende More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2011

Shoshanah rated it:

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one. I was hoping for more of a "chick lit," but thinking it was going to be more of a mystery. Except it wasn't really either of those. The premise is that Marcella is having an affair Cecil, and the night their affair ends Cecil's wife is murdered. Except it wasn't really about that event itself, but instead how the events impacted those involved seven years later.

The bulk of the novel takes places at the Cape, which I loved. R More...

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May 05, 2010

Mindy rated it:

My Take: I tried to like this book I really did. But as is so often the case whenever everyone seems to LOVE a book I really just didn't get the whole thing. Was the writing good? yeah Was the story good? Eh. I could not find myself liking any of the characters whatsoever. I sympathized with Callie alittle bit but I really just wanted to slap her and tell her to grow up (although I know post partum depression is a real thing as I had it myself ) I just found her very whiny. Jed, I felt More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Joanne rated it:

This novel takes us into the lives of the family members that were victimized by an unsolved mystery that took place years ago. When Betsy was found murdered in her Atlanta kitchen she leaves her children, Jed and Callie, and her husband Cecil, to deal with the aftermath of the event.

The book opens in a summer home that the McClatchey family has always owned on Cape Cod. Even though both of their parents are gone, Jed and Callie decided to keep the home in the family. Callie has m More...

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Apr 02, 2010

Greenfairylv rated it:

Holly LeCraw is a mastermind at creating characters. The loneliness, the innocent, the lusting, the betrayed and hurting characters are so well written you can't hate them. You sense what has driven each character to the place they are today and even though you might find some of them morally wrong it is hard to pass judgment on them when you hear how tortured they are within their own minds and how they just long to be punished.
Jed's sister, Callie, I found particularly interesting. She More...

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Aug 06, 2010

Holly rated it:

Like a few other reviewers, I felt that this was a book that I should have liked more but didn't. The characters were well developed but I couldn't find one that I actually liked or related to. At the same time, once I had met them all I felt compelled to read through to the end to see how things turned out...or what they put themselves and each other through, to be more accurate. Jed and Callie are brother and sister, both haunted by their parents deaths. marcella was their father's mistres More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 09, 2010

Tanya Marie rated it:

I read this last night, all of it - couldn't put it down! I kept reading to try and find out who did it ... still trying to process all the info and think I know but if you've read this book, please clue me in ... did you feel the same way when you finished? I have it 4 stars because the story was gripping and like the reviews on the back said, it was Hitchcock-like. I don't think there was really one character I liked that much at all - Jed was just weird, Callie was a nut case, Marcella floate More...

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Mar 25, 2010

Jessica rated it:

I won this through the first-reads program, and while I did not love it, I didn't hate it either. After the rave reviews, I had truthfully expected a little more.

Overall, it was just pretty good. The characters, for the most part, were interesting enough and I enjoyed all of the psychology - inner thoughts and reasoning - that LeCraw weaved throughout the story. I just felt that the book left me with unanswered questions - big ones. Perhaps this was the author's intent, but I would More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2011

Brian rated it:

This was a surprising book for me to have picked. Even more surprising was my reaction to the story. I am normally not one for romance, but this romantic mystery caught me from the beginning. I enjoyed how the story unfolded and found it to be a nice read. The ability to pick it up and put it down was good as I believe the size of the chapters contributed to the ease of reading small chunks at a time without losing the flow or gist of the story.

It is a complicated set of interactio More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Jessica rated it:

I was interested in reading this book because it was described as dealing with family secrets and mystery - which is right up my alley, but, while I enjoyed reading this booked, I didn't like it as much as I had anticipated. It was well written and thought out but nothing really grabbed me or stuck with me. Also, the characters and their relationships were well developed, but I didn't particularly like any of them.

Still, there was enough of a hook to keep me interested until the end More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Vicki rated it:

The Swimming Pool is a mystery novel that revolves around a woman's actions and the consequences that came with it. Marcella Atkinson was a married woman who had an affair with Cecil McClatchey, himself a married man with two kids. Cecil finally ends the affair and on the same night his wife Betsy is found murdered. Years later,Marcella is divorced and estranged from her daughter Toni(who now babysits for Cecil's daughter). Cecil is dead and his children Jed and Callie, now adults, are still tr More...

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Jul 27, 2010

Suz rated it:

Somewhat melodramatic and soap operatic in nature. Love entanglements between a woman, her husband, her lover and ultimately her lover's son. Complications a-plenty, especially when we find out the lover's wife is murdered and the lover dies. Each time the reader starts a new chapter, you don't know whether you are in the past or present time but it becomes clear quickly. Ultimately, the reader knows what really happened and when. It was an enjoyable read, even though I thought the main cha More...

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Mar 30, 2010

Shannon rated it:

This book could have been better. The premise was very good - a young man (Jed)finds a bathing suit secreted away in his family's summer home closet and realizes that it doesn't belong to his mother but to a woman (Marcella) that he admired from afar as a young man. The affair between Marcella and Jed's father and the resulting murder of Jed's mother (Betsy) are all intertwined in this book.

I found parts of the story gripping - but the timeframe that it was supposed to have taken p More...

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Jul 10, 2011

Julie rated it:

As I got into this book, I wondered why I don’t read books like this more often. I got this book as a Goodreads giveaway advanced read copy and I admit it is (like the last one) not the kind of thing I would normally pick up to read. By the time I finished it, I was thinking to myself that sometimes it’s good to explore different genres and authors.

I was telling my daughter last weekend about one of my favorite activities when I was growing up. We used to take inner tubes and get a r More...

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Apr 20, 2010

Joy rated it:

This book was an advance reading copy from the publisher.

I enjoyed this one more than I expected to at first. I believe the final third of the novel is much stronger and more interesting than the first two-thirds that lead up to it. If LeCraw could have tightened up that first part, the book would have been a truly extraordinary work - she's obviously a very gifted writer.

I found some of the characters a little hard to believe in, and some of their choices were also not More...

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