Poignat story of friendship, loyalty & love

books:


	• The Tenko Club Elizabeth Noble Hodder & Stoughton Paperbacks, 2005 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Poignat story of friendship, loyalty & love

Freddie Sinclair is having a bad day. She just dropped her son Harry off at boarding school; her husband Adrian called her cell to announce his intentions of ending their 12-year union so he can be with his mistress; and she's just received word that her estranged father has passed away. Her long-time friends rally to help her come to terms with the end of her marriage and the need to reconcile her long-strained relationship with her father.

The four gals met at Oxford and formed the Tenko Club - Freddie the willowy and striking American ex-pat; Sarah, the sensitive beauty; Tamsin, the eternal optimist (and eternally pregnant Earth Mother); and Reagan, the sharp lawyer who's met a lot of Mr. Right Nows, but continues to be jealous of the other three's marriages. After Sarah dies suddenly when she is hit by a car, her widower Matthew becomes the honorary fourth Tenko.

When she returns to America to settle her father's affairs, her pals come along, as does Matthew, who's been nursing a huge crush on Freddie. As a lawyer, he offers his services at the will reading, and when she discovers she has a much larger fortune than she could have imagined, she also discovers that the mother who left her as a toddler lives just miles from her father's Cape Cod estate. She must now struggle with whether she wants a relationship with the mother she never knew, as the escalating feelings between she and Matthew come to the surface after an impromptu kiss, and Reagan fosters a surly attitude about the blossoming relationship. When Adrian decides that he was hasty in his decision, Freddie now has to determine if she wants to save her marriage or forge ahead and conquer new territory.

Noble's story is engaging and captures the reader's interest with her vivid descriptions. The only problem is the story seems over populated. As it pops in and out of the present (to provide insight into the 20 year friendship between the ladies), it captures your attention, but many of the characters remain pretty one-dimensional, particularly Sarah, whose only apparent purpose in the story is to provide a future love interest for Freddie, and Cosmo, who we never really get to know. I really liked to story, but I felt that there was something missing. But the change in the relationship between Matthew and Freddie - from friends to lovers - was poignant and made it a satisfying read in the end. Released as "The Friendship Test" in the US.

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