I'd Give Anything
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Love Walked In and Belong to Me comes a profound and heart-rending story about a horrific tragedy that marks one woman and her hometown and about the explosive secrets that come to light twenty years later. Ginny Beale is eighteen, irreverent, funny, and brave, with a brother she adores and a circle of friends for whom she would do anything. Because of one terrible night, she loses them all—and her adventurous spirit—seemingly forever. While the town cheers on the high school football team, someone sets a fire in the school’s auditorium. Ginny’s best friend Gray Marsden’s father, a fire fighter, dies in the blaze.
While many in the town believe a notoriously troubled local teen set the fire, Ginny makes a shattering discovery that casts blame on the person she trusts most in the world. Ginny tells no one, but the secret isolates her, looming between her and her friends and ruining their friendship.
Over the next two decades, Ginny puts aside her wanderlust and her dreams. She marries a quiet man after college, and they move back to her hometown, where she raises their daughter, Avery, and cares for her tyrannical, ailing mother, Adela. She distances herself from the past and from nearly everyone she knew. But when Ginny’s husband, Harris, becomes embroiled in a scandal, her carefully controlled life crumbles, and, just when Ginny believes she is regaining her bearings, the secret she’s kept for twenty years emerges and threatens to destroy her hopes for the future.
With the help of fifteen-year-old Avery and of friends both old and new, Ginny must summon the courage to confront old lies and hard truths and to free herself and the people she loves from the mistakes and regrets that have burdened them for so long.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
De los Santos's heartfelt latest (after I'll Be Your Blue Sky) illustrates how tragedy can be overcome by love, honesty, and forgiveness. In 1997, the bonds of teenage Virginia "Zinny" Beale's friend group are tested after the death of Zinny's boyfriend Gray's father, a firefighter who died putting out a fire. Soon after, Zinny overhears a fight between her mother, Adela, and Zinny's beloved older brother, Trevor. Trevor loathes Adela, a wealthy, steely matron, and after his fights with Adela persist, he leaves for college and never returns. The tension at home causes Zinny to withdraw from her friends, including Gray. Twenty years later, Zinny is Ginny Beale McCue, married to the bland, dependable Harris. After Harris loses his job due to a scandal resulting from affectionate emails he sent to an 18-year-old intern, Ginny turns her attention to their precocious 15-year-old daughter, Avery. As Avery investigates her father's behaviors, Ginny looks back on her regrets about losing cherished teenaged friendships and her decision to settle with Harris. Thoughtful musings, engaging dialogue, and ironic wit ("it has adult bone structure," Harris says, defensively describing his intern's face) add to the drama. De los Santos's seemingly light tale is full of surprises. Correction: An earlier version of this review listed the incorrect title for the author's previous book.