** spoiler alert ** There are lots of spoilers in this review: please don't read it if you're yet to read the novel.

I haven't read everything Alice Hoffman has written, but I don't think that this was her strongest book. Skylight Confessions is split into three parts, each focusing on a different member of the family.

The first section, Ghost Wife, tells the story of how red-headed Arlyn convinces herself on the day of her father's funeral that the next man to come down her road is her own true love. (It's a wish, but more than that: it's a belief.) When student John Moody arrives, lost and exhausted, she continues to believe her fantasy, even though it becomes clear very quickly that she's made a mistake once they move into the Glass Slipper, a glass house that John's architect father built. This is probably the strongest section, with the love that Arlyn feels for her son Sam written about quite beautifully. Much is made of Sam's being 'different' - he has a high IQ and shows signs to me of having Aspergers or some low-level autism, although this is never explicitly referred to.

Arlyn falls in love with George Snow, a man contracted to keep the glass house clean and the affair that follows conceives a baby, Blanca, named for her father. And then she dies. I found this incredibly contrived: Arlyn has a beautiful new baby girl and is finally happy when she discovers a lump in her breast. This frustrated me no end - why does this always happens in novels of this kind? However, as I read on, it becomes clear that everything that happens happens because she dies... so I forgive Alice Hoffman, I guess. George is with Arlyn at the end; John remains outside, hopeless to the last.

The second section, A House Made of Stars, tells of how aimless graduate Meredith ends up coming to work for the Moody family as a nanny. John Moody is remarried to Cynthia, the women next door who he had an affair with while Arlyn was dying. Meredith follows John home when she sees him at a psychics, being followed by the ghost of his wife. Sam is sixteen and already addicted to drugs; Blanca is eleven and to grown-up for her age. Meredith helps them escape some of their demons, whilst falling in love and managing to finally shrug off her own.

Meredith is a likeable character; Sam also is, despite the endless troubles he puts his family through. Hoffman's writing is good enough that you want the characters to save each other, even while it is clear that this will never happen.

The third section, The Red Map, is probably the weakest of the three. It tells of Blanca coming home for her John Moody's funeral, where she discovers not only that George snow was her real father but also that Sam (now dead) had a child, William. In truth, this part is a bit too focused on summing everything up. There is something horribly awkward about the ending, but I can't quite place my finger on it, annoyingly. I found it all rather unsatisfying and I found the section were Blanca finally connects with her half sister Lisa kind of ridiculous.

Anyway: this review is far too long. I'm not recommending this book (The River King was much better) but if you're a Hoffman fan you'll get round to it eventually, I'm sure.