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Off Season: Book summary and reviews of Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons

Off Season

by Anne Rivers Siddons

Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons X
Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons
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  • Published Aug 2008
    368 pages
    Genre: Literary Fiction

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Book Summary

For as long as she can remember, they were Cam and Lilly--happily married, totally in love with each other, parents of a beautiful family, and partners in life. Then, after decades of marriage, it ended as every great love story does...in loss. After Cam's death, Lilly takes a lone road trip to her and Cam's favorite spot on the remote coast of Maine, the place where they fell in love over and over again, where their ghosts still dance. There, she looks hard to her past--to a first love that ended in tragedy; to falling in love with Cam; to a marriage filled with exuberance, sheer life, and safety-- to try to figure out her future.

It is a journey begun with tender memories and culminating in a revelation that will make Lilly re-evaluate everything she thought was true about her husband and her marriage.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[I]t's the changing relationship between Lilly and the elusive, enigmatic Elizabeth that makes this story fresh." - Publishers Weekly.

"The inadequately foreshadowed surprise ending involves an ultimate betrayal that will dismay readers almost as much as it does Lilly." - Kirkus Reviews.

This information about Off Season 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

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Nancy S

Felt cheated and insulted
Lily describes her childhood perfectly and beautifully. As a reader, I got caught up with the personalities, relationships, and the unfolding story. Jeebs was selfish, indifferent, self-absorbed and rude. Peaches was a jealous, mean-spirited, vindictive, whining brat. Jon and Lilly were soulmates at a very tender age from the moment they met.

Then Cam portrayed as a totally committed loving second soulmate was a total lie. Yes, I felt absolutely cheated by the author’s misrepresentation and concealment of the real Cam who was only revealed at the end. I felt totally cheated for Lilly! The insults? To Cam! And Peaches who just had to send her “son” to Lilly’s cottage to expose Cam’s infidelity as well as Peaches’ “triumphant revenge”. The very same Peaches who was the cause of Jon’s tragedy. The very same Peaches who successfully “seduced”/“stole” Lilly’s second soulmate.

Add betrayal by the custodians of Lilly’s cottage and her friend Kitty who knew! What kind of loyalty? None. Instead betrayal.
And, honestly, I felt betrayed by the author who resorted to and perpetuated the cheating husband line.

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Author Information

Anne Rivers Siddons Author Biography

Anne River Siddons was born in 1936 in Fairburn, Georgia. The only child of a prestigious Atlanta lawyer and his wife, Siddons was raised to be a perfect Southern belle. Growing up, she did what was expected of her: getting straight A's, becoming head cheerleader, the homecoming queen, and then Centennial Queen of Fairburn. At Auburn University she studied illustration, joined the Tri-Delt sorority, and "did the things I thought I should. I dated the right guys. I did the right activities," and wound up voted "Loveliest of the Plains."

While at Auburn she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column, and ultimately fired her, and the column garnered national attention. She later ...

... Full Biography

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