What if your friend – someone admired, envied, and fervently sought after by everyone who knew her – was really a dangerous sociopath? In her latest novel, Cocktail Hour, mainstream fiction author Tara McTiernan answers that question as she takes you on a wild roller coaster ride of thrilling highs and terrifying lows in this gripping novel about friendship gone horribly wrong.
Spring in glamorous uber-rich Fairfield County, Connecticut is a time of beginnings: a new diet for the approaching summer spent out on the yacht, fresh-faced interns being offered up at the office as the seasonal sacrifice to the gods of money, and corporate takeovers galore. Five women in their thirties have a brand-new friendship, too, one that’s fed and watered regularly at local hotspots over cocktails.
With all of their personal struggles – Lucie’s new catering business is foundering due to vicious gossip, Kate’s marriage is troubled due to an inability to conceive, Chelsea’s series of misses in the romance department have led to frantic desperation, and Sharon’s career problems are spinning out of control – the women look forward to a break and a drink and a chance to let their guards down with their friends. And letting their guards down is the last thing they should do in the kind of company they unknowingly keep with the fifth member of their cocktail clique: Bianca Rossi, a woman who will stop at nothing to have it all.
- Title: Cocktail Hour
- Raina Rating: 8.5 out of 10
- Genre: Chick Lit
- Author: Tara McTiernan (author’s website)
On the surface, Cocktail Hour is a chick-lit story about five friends who get together over cocktails at a club in Fairfield County, Connecticut. But you soon learn that one of the girls, Bianca is an insane sociopath who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. You know that saying, with friends like this, who needs enemies? That is exactly what I thought of when I read this book.
This story is about five women who, for argument’s sake, we’ll call friends, very dysfunctional friends, but eh friends nonetheless. Each of the five ladies has issues in their own lives, personal struggles that they are dealing with like one can’t have a baby, one is having problems at work, and so on. These are just the normal run-of-the-mill problems you would expect in dealing with any group of girlfriends. Only this isn’t just any group of girlfriends. Think of it as sex and the city but with some really crazy bitches. Well, at least one of them is a totally crazy bitch. The rest just really put way too much blind faith into her.
If anything, this book should serve as a great reminder to trust your inner voice. Overall I liked the book. It was one of those stories that drew you into it. The characters were interesting and made you think about your friends and the people in your life.
