After her husband, Rory, dies, Lauren Kincaid retreats to the comfort and nostalgia of her family's New Jersey beach house. A widow at age 24, she welcomes the quiet change of pace from Los Angeles--where Rory played professional hockey with the Kings before shocking everyone by abandoning sports to serve in Iraq.
Four years after Rory's death, Lauren continues to be consumed by her emotional inertia, unable to move forward yet finding solace in her solitude. "Longport in the winter was a recluse's paradise. Some people called it a ghost town; Lauren had become quite comfortable in the company of ghosts." Her quiet life is upended when her parents arrive for the summer. Financial stress has frayed Beth and Howard Adelman's marriage, leaving the couple barely speaking while on the verge of losing their business. Accompanying them is Stephanie, their wild-child daughter who drinks excessively while neglecting her young son. Adding to the dysfunction is Matt Brio, a struggling filmmaker determined to gain Lauren's trust and cooperation for a tell-all documentary that threatens to reveal all that Rory kept hidden.
Jamie Brenner (The Forever Summer) has crafted a fast-paced and compelling novel with The Husband Hour, a heartfelt family drama that captures the subtle nuances of the Jersey shore (a Philadelphia native, Brenner knows her terrain well) as well as grief's complicated aftermath. Each character is mourning a loss and tending long-buried hurts, secrets and regrets. Whether they choose to stay stagnant or move forward, they'll need to accept the inevitable truth about everyone they thought they knew, including themselves. --Melissa Firman, writer, editor and blogger at melissafirman.com