Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Krauss

If you have read the Nanny Diaries or any of the other books by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Krauss you think you know what to expect with this book and for the most part it does deliver on the behind the scenes lives of the untouchables, in this case a famous pop star and her assistant. But Between You and Me offers more than the predictable. The family ties that bind Kelsey and Logan and the stories that are buried deep within them add a depth to the predictable. This is an quick read but it is not always easy as the authors push the envelope and allow their characters to be truly real and not just caricatures.

While it is harder than the fluff one would expect from a summer read, it does deliver on those things that make a great summer read. The pace moves and the players are bigger than life. The characters are both empathetic and at times painfully pathetic. The decisions they make are at times dangerous but understandable considering the challenges of their circumstances. It is escapism, though at times I found myself preferring my own boring life the drama and pressure that the characters in this book endure.

This was another good vacation read, a break from the day to day and a chance to see that maybe my grass is greener, even if it is not at a Malibu mansion.

The Expats by Chris Pavone

I read The Expats by Chris Pavone while on vacation last week. I started it on the plane and had to finish it before I went to bed that night. It was a page turner. It made my long flight, the second in two days go by quickly which is always a blessing. I am not sure where I saw the book recommended first but the title appealed immediately to me for I have been an expat. Not an ex CIA agent turned expat wife like Kate Moore. No I was the more boring expat wife, the one that followed my accountant husband to Santiago, Chile, and then later Puerto Rico. I was like many of the wives in the book who joined the American Club and made friends with the other English speaking wives who had followed their husbands on assignment. So I related to that part of the story, to the idea that living overseas is like being a freshmen in college all over again, quick to make friends desperate to find our place in this new world.  I enjoyed reading of her life playing tennis and meeting friends after school drop off. I liked living vicariously through their travels. But even if you have never lived overseas, this book will keep you entertained because it quickly stops being a book about a housewife living overseas and becomes a thriller with all the elements of a spy novel. It can be a bit predictable but isn't that what we like from a good international crime mystery that includes members of the CIA and FBI? It doesn't telegraph the outcome but it does give you enough clues to piece things together as it moves along. I really enjoyed reading this book, clearly since I read it in one day.