Islands/Low Country [Hardcover]

Islands is the story of a group of life long friends called The Scrubs.As the book begins Anny is a 35 year old woman who meets a doctor named Lewis. When they marry he brings her into his group of friends as its newest member. Always a nurturer, at first Anny feels rather out of place in the group but in time she becomes a solid member of the clan. She not only loves the other members but is loved by them in return. Through the years the four couples spend time together at a beach house they co own and form a family they all prefer to their own blood relatives. But then tragedies befall several of the Scrub members and the friends must weather these storms.Again they renew their vows to always there for each other. And they are as members of the group struggle with their grief, the passing of time and illnesses They seem to form a cocoon around each other which as long as they continue to be together will protecxt them from the outside world. But things aren't always as they appear and old events and resentments will cause another near tragedy and one in which the remaining members of the Scrubs will learn a very bitter lesson about their long standing friendships.

On the surface this should have been an endearing book about a group of people and places in and around the Charleston area. And desptie that Siddons descriptions of the area are worthwhile to read about, I had a hard time with the characters from this book. None of them ever really came alive to me and I couldn't feel too much for any of them eventhough they certainly had things happen to them which should have elicited some emotion on my part.I guess to some readers the ending was very surprising but to me it was as if Siddons changed her genre and offered her reader an ending worthy of a suspsense novel rather than a contemporary fiction novel. I almost feel as though the author wanted to finish the book and therefore came up with a shocking conclusion. But it made little sense to me cosnidering allthat came before and wasn't the resoltion I thought appropriate. On the plus side Siddons does a fine job of decribing the areas where these people spend their time and I did feel as though I was there when she described Anny sailing with the dog Gladys or dancing with Lewis at Booters, a friends clam bar.

Despite what I have written I did give this book an average rating. I also plan on reading Peachtree Road, one of Siddons older books, in the fall with my book group. I still consider Siddons one of my favoriter authors and chalk this book up to one title book I just didn't like. I know this happens from time to time to readers but hope this is the only book of Anne Rivers Siddons I didn't enjoy. I know that I will continue to read her older titles I haven't read and her new books in the future. And I will continue to recommend those books of hers which were mentioned in this review when asked about a favoties author's books.