Review: The Four Ms. Bradwells by Meg Waite Clayton

ISBN #: 978-0-345-51708-1

Page Count: 321

Copyright: 2011

Book Summary:

(Taken from inside dust jacket)

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court.  Nicknamed "the Ms. Bradwells" during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979 - when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court - the four have supported one another through life's challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small.  Betts was, and still is, the Funny One.  Ginger, the Rebel.  Laney, the Good Girl.  And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends' collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past - one that stirs up secrets they've kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Mandy's Review

Cover

Simple and elegant like the aura the Ms. Bradwells expel, but it's contradictory to how their lives have been.

Plot

Realistic, humorous, sad, whimsical, thoughtful and sometimes shocking ... this story has it all.

Main Characters

Ginger - Sometimes callous, but with a huge heart for others.  Ginger was traumatized at 13 years of age, although she doesn't see it that way until much later.  This event has shaped the way she looks at life and relationships and even herself.

Laney - Ginger's closest friend.  Laney, too, was also a victim of a traumatic event ... by the same person that traumatized Ginger.  Laney is a thinker and likes to consider all of her options repeatedly.  She's also fluent in Latin ... which can be quite annoying.

Betts - Betts might be known as the Funny One, but I got the sense that she was the peace keeper as well.  Even though I know she came from a single-parent home, I still don't have the feeling that I know her as well as the other three Ms. Bradwells.  As a matter of fact, I had to sit here and recall who she was in order to type up this description about her.  She just wasn't that memorable to me.

Mia - A world-traveled journalist who hops from man to man.  She's known as the Savant, but she's down-to-earth and likeable as well.  Mia is the friend that many women would not only like to have, but to be as well.

Overall

This is a wonderful suspense novel based on four women who are stronger than they know.  It definitely kept me guessing until the very end.  I would recommend this novel to all the women out there who enjoy a suspense novel involving strong determined women.