** spoiler alert ** Delia Grindstead is a woman who wants to get away from it all. So, on the family’s annual beach vacation, she walks away from everything. She escapes to a town which just happens to be founded by a distant relative.

This is just the first in a lot of “just happens to be” moments that leaves me not liking this book. The time-period and other details are also vague. Delia is a character I can’t really relate to. It seems that she comes from a family with money (“she had been taught to buy only top-quality underwear, however else she might economize”), she lives in a rich neighborhood and her children have names like Ramsey and Carroll. However, she takes a thrill in buying business-type dresses from the thrift shop in the town she escapes to. And she is in awe by other female characters who (to me) seem like they come from the same lineage that she does. She loves trashy romance novels and slips constantly into her own fantasy world. She remembers times with her husband of torrid romance and passion, but the picture painted of his character is that he is a stuffy anal doctor.

As far as “just happen to be” -- There just happens to be a room available in a boarding house, there just happens to be a job available with a lawyer. There just happens to be a “live in woman” position available when she gets fed up with the lawyer. There just happens to be a character in the book EXACTLY like her who she has a run in with, thus giving her a chance to reflect on her situation. But this character is so loony that she once again dismisses the irresponsibility of her actions.

I kept waiting for Delia to become a deeper character, to learn something from her situation, but 3/4th of the way through the book she’s still worried that a limp from a sprained ankle will make people think she’s handicapped. And a letter she receives from her teen daughter stating “sometimes I don’t blame you for leaving” seems to once again make Delia feel ok with what she has done.

The other thing that kept distracting me and pulling me out of the story was the weird language. Its vague as to when this story takes place (a complaint I saw by other reviewers on-line), but the lawyer has a computer, so we know its sometime recent. But, people in the story, including the children, use words like “Golly” and “Gee” and “Gosh.” Something about that just pulls me out of the zone.

I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the ending, but it wasn’t a sad ending so it was ok.