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Jan 17, 2012

Pam rated it:

Emily is 32; living in New York; working 16-18 hours a day at a large law firm; married to James, a wonderful man whom she loves dearly, who also happens to be a lawyer, and who works more hours than she does. Like every other morning, when Emily wakes up at 6 am she’s already receiving and sending text messages from her boss, husband, clients, sister, and colleagues, etc. She gets to work and it’s while she’s dealing with a file that she feels the walls closing in on her. She immediately leaves More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Sara rated it:

You know how sometimes you just have to be in the right place in your life to enjoy a book? Well, this one's not doing it for me. I think I would have liked it better in my younger years. Now, I'm too old, jaded, synical. The protagonist Emily, is a lawyer, escaping from her life in NY. Her husband is also a lawyer, they own a house, a nice car, are both young and beautiful and struggling to conceive a child. Emily does not feel fulfilled in her life and is looking for more. Perhaps if Delinsky More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Sandy rated it:

Today at 5AM I dropped my significant other off at his work. Instead of turning right out of the parking lot as I always do, I turned left and kept going. Yeah, I can relate to this book. It's a different mind-set, driving off into the unknown, leaving the known and dissatisfaction behind. For a while I imagined just driving and driving, stopping in new or even revisiting old places, getting a room, checking in relaxing, walking, exploring, visiting. There are no time constraints, no pressures, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Ameena rated it:

At one point or another everyone searches for an escape from their busy life. An escape from work, family, technology, friends, obligations. An escape from the harsh reality of the real world. And the promise of escape from my whining child – even a short-term one – is what drew me to this book in the first place.

This is the story of 32-year-old Emily – wife of James, employee of Lane Lavash, and a woman who dreams of becoming a mother. Emily thinks she’s living the dream in New York C More...

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Oct 16, 2011

Sandy rated it:

Nice, quiet read. Nothing too complex, the characters were people I could relate to and the plot was simple. Who, if they really had the chance, has not wished they could not quit everything they were doing and run away for a few days and just "find themselves"? The main character in the book did just that and she ends up running back to the place where she found her first love (not her current husband) and where her closest girlfriend lives. But wait, before she leaves "her curr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

Louise rated it:

Thirty-two-year-old Emily Aulenbach was a lawyer living in Gramercy Park, New York with her husband, James, who is also a lawyer. They don’t have pets or kids because they’re trying to work to put in their hours now so they can eventually take things a bit easier later. Emily was tired of her job and tired of her life so she ups and leaves work one morning within an hour of arriving. Once home, she packs a bag, hops in the car and begins driving. She has no idea where she is headed as long a More...

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Sep 02, 2011

Sheila rated it:

Emily Aulenback is a successful 30-year-old lawyer married to James - who is also a lawyer. While once she dreamed of representing victims of abuse... instead she sits in her cubicle day after day talking to people who drank tainted water. Day after day the job drones on, the long hours, James putting in even more time than she does, the demands of the lifestyle they had created. Emily lives by her blackberry, her computer, and her watch.

Then one day... suddenly she decided she has h More...

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Aug 26, 2011

Kat rated it:

Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat thinking you're stuck in a life you don't want? Did you ever consider disappearing - leaving family, friends, even a spouse - ditching everything you've ever known and starting over again? Maybe, just maybe, even returning to an old lover?

That's how Emily Aulenbach begins the story of her escape: escape from a workaholic husband she rarely sees, an overpriced New York City apartment that never feels like home, a job where profits, not people are More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Lisa rated it:

I liked it but there were some irritants. I had no problem with her stalking the coyotes -- but I have coyotes in my backyard and they don't just hang around when you approach. They run. Fast. So that was just an eye roller for me, everytime she went to connect with herself by staring into the golden eyes of the coyote. Yeah, not gonna happen.

The second was it was based in a fictional town in N.H. and the characters were given the backwoods accent that would have been completely More...

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Jul 16, 2011

Gigi Ann rated it:

I am a Barbara Delinsky fan, I have read many of her books, but I must say I was a little disappointed with this book. I just could not connect with the main character, Emily, at all, I found her a bit spoiled and self-centered, and just a bit boring. I could not make the connection between her and the coyotes, it seemed a bit weird to me. However, that does not mean I won't read anymore Delinsky books. (I love her books.) I just think being from the older generation, this book will probably be More...

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Jul 11, 2011

Mary rated it:

ESCAPE by Barbara Delinsky
07/11 - Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group - Hardcover, 320 pages

Could you walk away from the perfect life you thought you had created?

Emily can’t take another day of answering the phone, sitting in her cubicle, worrying about whether she is doing the right thing by her clients or if the dream she has been chasing has crumbled in her hands. She loves her husband but suspects he may be cheating on her, likes being a lawyer, but hates the type she More...

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Aug 02, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I don't know what it was, I just couldn't really get into this book. It was interesting enough about a lawyer who drops everything and leaves because she hates her job so much, but it was boring at times. Some parts were all just what Emily was thinking and I kind of got tired of her thinking so much. Maybe I'm just too young for this book because I didn't really connect with Emily all that well. James was probably my favorite character because he was a good guy and the kind of husband everyone More...

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Oct 19, 2011

Ruth rated it:

Emily entered law school with the idea of representing the underdog and helping people. When she and her new husband graduated they were on track for a wonderful life. They both had positions in Manhattan law firms. The problem was that in trying to climb the ladder to partner, they lost not only their private lives but themselves. One afternoon Emily feels as though she can't breathe and she tells her cubicle mate that she needs to go out for air. Emily walks out the door and keeps going. More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Booklover rated it:

This was an okay read,will go through each relationship in the story

Emily-Vicky:absolutely liked Emily-Vicky Bell their friendship and even after being seperated for 10 years and being igored and cut off ties by Emily,Vicky still opens her home and heart for Emily,she is angry and she talks it out and forgives Emily and they bond again and this time Emily is there for Vicky through good and bad times,loved the way Vicky helps Emily in finding what she wants,supports her and Vicky asks More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Beth rated it:

I am a big Barbara Delinsky fan. When I saw her new novel was out, I knew I had to read it.

This book starts off with a bang. Emily leads a very fast moving, stressful life. One day she has decided she has had enough and just ups and walks out of her job without so much as a word. She goes home, grabs a bag and off she goes, ending up in a town where she spent a very memorable summer. Yep, just ups and leaves her husband and job. There have been times when I would love to take o More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Georgina rated it:

For the mostpart I enjoyed Escape. An easy read and a story I could identify with.

However...

**SPOILER**

I didn't expect the hostage situation, in fact I found it inconsistent with the storyline. I think what bothered me most was both James and Jude seemed completely out of character in handling the situation. James may have been a great negotiator but I don't believe he would've walked into such a dangerous situation, especially with a baby on the way - he was More...

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Sep 04, 2011

Dana rated it:

For decades I have loved the works of B. Delinsky, Anne Rivers Siddens and Nancy Thayer. In the last month I have read the newest novel of all 3 authors and am astounded by what they have lost. Delinsky was always a sure bet for a mesmerizing, gripping and beautifully written novel. Escape escaped all of these adjectives. There were at least half a dozen typos and several grammatical errors, as well! What is going on w/ the editing these days?
The premise of this book was a good one: What h More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Liralen rated it:

I received a firstreads winner notification for this book, and roughly 48 hours later it showed up on my doorstep. Definitely hard to argue with the publisher being so on top of it.

I love the premise of this book - who, indeed, has not wanted to escape at one point or another? It's written well, and I appreciate that she didn't take Emily down the somewhat clichéd route of severing all ties and not looking back. I initially expected Emily to end up with a different character than she More...

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Sep 30, 2011

Jessica rated it:

First, a note on the narrator. I listened to this as a book on tape (my preferred reading method with a grabby toddler). Can someone please tell her that everyone who lives in New England does NOT sound like a bad Kennedy imitation?

I have loved Barbara Delinsky for years. She was an auto buy starting in the 1980s when she wrote romance. As I type this, all of her Harlequin books and her first single-titles are on my keeper shelf, yellow and dog eared. She was one of the first au More...

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Jul 22, 2011

Laurel-Rain rated it:

What if you looked around one day at the accouterments of the "perfect life" you were leading, and literally couldn't breathe? What if the dreams you had and the people you love feel more like "gadgets" in your world, until you scarcely notice them? What if you feel invisible?

Successful New York lawyer Emily Aulenbach experiences all of these feelings one Friday, and acting on impulse, she leaves her office, goes home long enough to grab a few possessions, and tak More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Laurie rated it:

I love this book because its main theme is about spending time with and finding yourself. Delinsky could do some old, boring predictable plot about a woman not wanting to be married anymore and going off and falling in love with her ex-boyfriend again. I am so glad she did not go there.

I can relate to so many of the things she talked about including: taking time in nature and silence, communing and connecting with animals in dreams and in waking life, and stepping back and listeni More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Susan rated it:

I won this book from GoodReads, and I was anxious to read it. Loved the pretty cover and had seen such mixed reviews that I was truly curious. After just turning the last page a few minutes ago, I can honestly say ESCAPE was a wonderful escape! I really enjoyed this story of Emily deciding one day that her current existence (long hours at the law firm, husband working endless hours at another law firm, no real friends in NYC) was not what she wanted. So she takes off for a small town called More...

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Jul 16, 2011

Nicole rated it:

I'm very surprised by the number of stars this book received. I have read others by Delinsky that were also escapist fiction, but much better than this one. I read in the afterword that she wrote this book on the advice of her fans. I don't think that was a very good idea. We fans are not authors--what do we know? Premise was ok, the whole "coyote" thing--stupid. And, there were too many things going on at once, but not a lot of detail. I feel like I need to emphasize how lame I felt t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Leah rated it:

As soon as I saw the book cover for Escape for Barbara Delinsky I knew I had to have it. Sometimes a book cover just captures you and Escape more than did that. Escape’s cover really captured me, showing a girl against a darkish blue city backdrop and I was sold. The synopsis helped that along, because the synopsis sounded awesome – I love novels where people escape their lives, where they reinvent their lives or just try to make sense of the ones they had and Escape seemingly promised all of th More...

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Jul 23, 2011

Jodi rated it:

Sometimes you just need to stop the world and try to get off which is what Emily does when she walks out on her job (lawyer at a big NYC firm), her husband (with whom she is trying to get pregnant, unsuccessfully) and her life (which she doesn't have) and travels to Bell Valley to find herself. This isn't a typical story. She doesn't fall back into the arms of her first love, Jude, although he also returns to Bell Valley as the prodigal son. Instead, Delinsky takes Emily through a self explorati More...

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Aug 26, 2011

Donna rated it:

hmmmmmmm..... I'm a little torn about rating this a three, but it doesn't really deserve a two, it kept my interest, and, was indeed, an escape. So then, why the hemming and hawing? Everyone has days, weeks, months and even years, that they would just like to shut down, pack it in and escape to an "other" place, what's not to like? In this context, of course the whole premise of the novel appeals, but I'm not sure our "heroine," Emily, really did escape so much as kind of More...

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Aug 21, 2011

Tracey rated it:

Escape was a Goodreads first read and Thank you Goodreads because otherwise I might not have ever read anything by Barbara Delinsky. Now, Escape has piqued my interest enough to keep my eye out for other writings by Delinsky.

When I first read the synopsis for Escape, I though, wow, this is something I can relate to. I mean who doesn’t live a hectic life and I’m sure everyone at some point wonders what if I had done this instead of that how would my life have been different? More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Diane rated it:

I think we all have moments when we fantasize about just escaping from our lives and trying to get back to basics. As a lawyer myself, I could appreciate much of the main character's feelings about her situation. At one point in my life, I went through a mini version of what she did. I do think her reaction was more than a bit extreme. I can understand wanting to do what she did, but I can't imagine being quite so blase about the consequences of it. I think the coyote and Jude themes were f More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Darlene rated it:

This book was a little slow moving. The premise behind was good - sometimes you need to "Escape" your old life to renew yourself! Overall I enjoyed it.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Lorri rated it:

I've always enjoyed these kind of books where the woman needs to find herself or starts over. Emily and James have a very busy life, both lawyers in New York City. Even though they have very little free time, they are trying to have a baby. One day after talking to a claimant on the phone, Emily leaves work and travels out of state. She has no idea where she is going or why, but knows she needs to take time off. She finally ends up in a town she left ten years prior- after a break up with h More...

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