Publisher's Weekly Review
Beaird shines in her impressive debut about a group of divorcées-to-be in 1950s Reno, Nev. After Lois Saunders asks for a divorce from Lawrence, her husband of nearly four years, she departs their home in Lake Forest, Ill., for the Golden Yarrow Ranch--a place designed for "good girls" to establish Nevada residency so they can secure a divorce under the state's no-fault policy. While there, Lois becomes friendly with the ranch's other guests and learns about their marital situations. Mary Elizabeth is fleeing an abusive husband, while Vera is recovering from heartache after her husband cheated on her with the maid. In Lois's eyes, the most dazzling guest of all is Greer Lang, who claims to be escaping a violent marriage in New York City, and who inspires the women to step out of their staid lifestyles by indulging in boozy nights at a casino. But is Greer the person she claims to be? What if she's actually leading Lois to her downfall? To find the answers, readers will eagerly follow Beaird's skillful plotting and appealing characters all the way through the final page. This author is one to watch. Agent: Jamie Chambliss, Folio Literary. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
At a divorce ranch in the 1950s, a lonely woman in her early 20s finds a beautiful, mysterious friend. Lois Saunders' trip from Lake Forest, Illinois, to Reno, Nevada, is the first step in her liberation from her husband and her father, both of whom infantilize her. At the Golden Yarrow, she will be part of a small group of women waiting out the six weeks of residency required for a divorce. "Like the girls from school, they all have the fresh, clear skin that signifies not just money, but wealth--Lois's lesser lineage apparent in the bumps prickling her forehead, the thick hair on her forearms." Though she lies about her background to impress them, the girls close ranks. Her father has told the director not to let her leave the ranch, so she doesn't go with them on their nightly outings to bars and casinos, and she has no urge to join their daily trail rides. Filled with self-doubt verging on self-loathing, Lois is surprised when a glamorous new guest--who arrives with a huge bruise on her face and goes into seclusion for several days--emerges to choose her, Lois, as her new best friend. Greer Lang wears men's oxford shirts and exudes such confidence that the director's daughters wonder if she's a princess. Her approval unlocks access to the group for Lois, who's soon tossing back cocktails at the casino and feeling as if she's becoming a different person. But just as the lizard curled on her windowsill turns out to be an illusion, a shadow, things are not what they seem. Though it's filled with colorful imagery, dark green dresses and burgundy lips, Beaird's debut has the hypnotic pacing and dramatic ambience of an old black-and-white film. Her research about the divorce-ranch phenomenon and its period expresses itself in myriad small, compelling details, winking like the stones on the engagement rings the girls toss into the river after their court dates--though Lois' ring has a different fate. A transporting psychological novel of friendship and betrayal, with the moody period feel of a Hitchcock film. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Lois is a socially awkward woman who asks too many questions and struggles to create meaningful relationships. She has just left her husband and must spend six weeks, mandated by court, at a "divorce ranch." Lonely and unsure of herself, Lois' life changes drastically when Greer Lang arrives. Drawn to Greer's beauty and forceful personality, Lois and the other women stay out too late, drink too much, and spend too much money at the casino. As Greer's influence widens and her control veers toward abuse, Lois begins to wonder more about who she was and who she wants to be. Beaird's debut is a searing, painfully honest story about the difficulties women faced in the 1950s and the lengths to which they would go to gain their freedom. Lois and Greer are brilliantly written, utterly different, and yet each of them is desperate, and both are willing to push themselves to extreme limits to discover who they are, what they want, and what they truly deserve.
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Beaird's first novel is a twisty tale about learning to take responsibility for one's own life. In the 1950s, Lois escapes a short and loveless marriage in Chicago by staying on a "divorce ranch" for six weeks to establish residency in Reno, NV, a city where unhappiness is legal grounds for divorce. (In most states at the time, divorce was only justified by abandonment or adultery.) Lois had sleepwalked into marriage after an unloving childhood and her mother's death, and at Nevada's Golden Yarrow Ranch, Lois remains passive and socially awkward, until the arrival of glamorous and overbearing Greer. The women staying at the ranch travel nightly to bars and casinos in Reno, and Greer pushes them toward increasingly drunken and wild behavior. Lois is thrilled at Greer's attention and proud to help her fight off a stalking husband; then she embraces Greer's scheme to steal money from a casino and is barely able to save herself from Greer's resulting betrayal. In a satisfying denouement, Lois overcomes her passivity and sets out on her own, earning a steady if unglamourous income and working toward a self-actualized future as a makeup artist. VERDICT The history of "divorce ranches" in the United States is fascinating as depicted in this novel, and Lois's growing independence is compelling. A good choice for readers and book groups interested in 20th-century historical fiction that deals with women's issues.--Jan Marry
