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Book Summary and Reviews of A Very Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard

A Very Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard

A Very Inconvenient Scandal

A Novel

by Jacquelyn Mitchard

  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2023, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning family drama that explores the emotional consequences of loyalty, deception and jealousy.

Stunned by her recently widowed father's reckless behavior, a young woman must learn to navigate a new world—where the people she should trust the most have become strangers she cannot trust at all.

Frankie Attleboro returns home to Cape Cod with thrilling news. She's met the love of her life, and they're getting married with a baby on the way. That's the moment her father makes his own jaw-dropping announcement: at sixty, he's getting married as well, to Frankie's best friend, Ariel, who is also pregnant, and due soon.

As Frankie and Ariel struggle to adjust to their new relationship, Ariel's estranged mother, Carlotta, returns after a decade-long absence. She claims to be a changed woman—but is she really? And where has she been all these years? Frankie is suspicious, and as Carlotta's unpredictable behavior intensifies, Frankie must untangle the threads of the past to protect Ariel's future—and her own.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Mitchard offers an arresting exploration of a family's messy relationships... . The characters and relationships are all smartly drawn, and the narrative is shot through with plenty of humor and scandal." —Publishers Weekly

"An intriguing, twisty-turny tale of family secrets ..." —Kirkus Reviews

"... plenty of fraught family dynamics and tension here to keep the pages turning as the story builds to a gratifying conclusion." —Booklist

"To write about those oldest of subjects—families, their secrets, their betrayals—and make them not only new but revelatory, it takes an absolute master of storytelling. How lucky for all of us that we have Jacquelyn Mitchard on the job! She writes, as always, with empathy, humor, and grace. This book is a scandalous delight." —Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

"From its astonishing opening to the marvelous, improbable vision of its final pages, A Very Inconvenient Scandal delivers one remarkable revelation after another. Readers will eagerly follow the willful and likeable Frankie as she struggles to accept the transformation of family and friends in the period after the death of her beloved mother, Beatrice. A tale of family skeletons, community secrets, and the enduring power of friendship and love, this delightful novel shows that it is possible to recover from and even triumph after loss." —Lan Samantha Chang, author of The Family Chao

"A Very Inconvenient Scandal is that rare mix of beautiful prose and terrifying suspense. I devoured it." —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of the Terry Crosswhite series

This information about A Very Inconvenient Scandal was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

ZW

Don’t bother
The only good thing I can say about this book is that it was a gift, so I didn’t waste my own money on it.

From beginning to end, the storyline was all over the shop. Full of unbelievable and underdeveloped (if at all developed) characters who make no real change or become more likeable. The way the characters spoke to each other was cringey and not how any normal humans speak.

From the beginning, the way Frankie was treated for (understandably) being shocked that her BEST FRIEND was pregnant to and marrying her father (35 year age gap) put a bad taste in my mouth. I was hoping for a scandal surrounding the mother’s death when it was revealed she passed of… strep throat. But no, it was just strep throat. Bizarre choice.

And the ridiculous names of the characters! Ellabella Ballenger had me scoff out loud. Pure ridiculousness. And Frankie being Frankie Attelboro with a son named Attelboro… honestly Ubaldo would have been a better choice and that’s saying something…

The plot was painfully predictable and the only plot line (of so many incoherent plot lines) of any interest was dismissed within a few pages, with 0 follow up. You would think if we had to hear SO much about Frankie’s every inner musings, we would get some kind of introspection into a NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE and the confirmation of her suspicions of Carlotta?? I guess not.

I literally made an account here to make this review. Never in my life have I read such a poor book, and I was a Twilight kid.

I’ve heard Mitchard’s other books are better. I’ll give them a chance to redeem this absolutely horrid experience. I only finished it because I’m stubborn. Do not recommend.

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Author Information

Jacquelyn Mitchard Author Biography

New York Times bestseller Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Deep End of the Ocean, Twelve Times Blessed, and The Breakdown Lane. She is also the author of The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, a collection of her newspaper columns. She lives with her husband and six children in Madison, Wisconsin.

Link to Jacquelyn Mitchard's Website

Other books by Jacquelyn Mitchard at BookBrowse

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