BuckeyeAngel

Laurel never drank at professional functions, today she wished she could but instead she got another club soda and lime. Then her ex husband George came up to Laurel to congratulate her on being named a judge.  But Laurel wasn’t sure she wanted to be a judge which was ironic or moronic because all her life she had worked this exact achievement. No Laurel wanted to be a judge  but Laurel wasn’t sure she wanted to be a judge more than she wanted a baby. Dawn had to get to an important meeting and asked Kyra/Ky to zip her up. Kyra hoped Dawn wasn’t going to be late again and told Dawn. Kyra also told Dawn her mom Teresa had called but left no message.  Teresa had liked Kyra until she found out Kyra and Dawn were a couple living together and not just roommates for the past two years. Once Teresa did know she refused to say a word to Kyra. Dawn was having no luck selling her abstract paintings and wondered if she should just give up on being a successful artist. Dawn had a job as a scientific illustrator but that wasn’t her passion. Dawn resented Kyra’s success as a yoga and mediation center owner. But then Kyra looked up and smiled and the resentment disappeared. Ellie was in the car with her twin sons Shane and Aidan and she was taking the seventeen year old boys to get things for their dorms as they were going to two separate colleges soon. Ellie was glad Shane was getting away from Hailey his girlfriend as Hailey was needy. Although Hailey was perfectly nice. Ellie had been Hailey at one time and needy led to poor life choices and she didn’t want Shane’s future compromised like hers had been. In two weeks her boys would be gone what was Ellie going to do? She had ten hours a day to rattle around while her husband Scott was at work. Ellie had her Lia Sophia business but making a little money selling jewelry part time didn’t add up to a career. Like Laurel Ellie had an orange envelope and had been invited to a girl’s weekend with her college friends. Like old times. But the last time the five friends had got together at Chateau De Cygne Noir - a decade ago- their had been a tragic accident as someone had pushed Evalange/Vangie off her fifth floor balcony and Vangie was paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life. Every year the women thought about that. Ellie opened up the envelope and it was as she thought an invitation and it was a month from now in September The boys would already be off to college and Ellie decided she wanted to go. Even though it meant revisiting what had happened. Geneva had fifteen year old Mata in her chair who had a problem with eating but Geneva let Marta know they could talk about whatever they wanted to. Her mind drifted to her brother Jimmie who had been killed in a driveby when he wasn’t much older than Marta. Then she thought about her older brother Leland in prison for another year for his assault and battery conviction. Then Geneva asked Ellie if she had a bike. Ten years later and Laurel and the other women return to the haunted - with a ghost- castle for the first time since Vangie was not paralyzed for life and was now walking and was engaged to marry. Vangie wasn’t always nice to the other women when they were younger. Then Vangie’s body was found and the women had to admit there was a murderer among them. The rest of the friends make a pack to find the truth but with suspicion, doubt, and old secrets threaten to tear the friends apart and this time the sheriff is determined to solve the crime.

I liked this book a lot. I liked the plot a lot and the pace most of the time but it did drag some at times for me. I loved that they stayed in a haunting/haunted castle,a beautiful castle. I loved the twists and turns in this story. I loved the setting with the castle also. This definitely kept my attention and kept me guessing also.. I also liked how the friends had reasons to not entirely trust each other. Sometimes it was a little confusing with what was past and present. I loved the characters and the twists and turns of this story and I recommend.