Book Club Monday: A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison

Browsing the shelves of my local book shop, I likely would not have given Jan Ellison's A Small Indiscretion a second look, to be honest. It was not my usual read, but I really, really enjoyed it. For a taste, here is the back jacket description:

At nineteen, Annie Black trades a bleak future in her washed-out hometown for a London winter of drinking and abandon. Some two decades later, in San Francisco, she is a successful lighting designer married to a good man, and the mother of three children. Then, one June morning, a photograph arrives in her mailbox, igniting an old longing and setting off a chain of events that threaten to overturn her family's hard-won happiness. When Annie returns to London seeking answers, her indiscretions come to light, and she must piece together the mystery of her past - the fateful collision of liberation and sexual desire that drew an invisible map of her future.

What I found, though, was a great surprise. A Small Indiscretion was a fun read, with twists and turns so sharp that it can't fit into just one genre. It flew from a mystery to a drama in just the flip of a page, and I really loved the flow and fit of the story into each of its' different settings.

The story follows Annie Black, a lighting designer and the owner of a light shop called the Salvaged Light in San Francisco. She has what seems like the perfect life, with her husband, doctor Jonathan, and three children; Polly, Clara, and Robbie, the oldest. Everything seemed to be going well, until she received a mysterious photo in the mail, a photo from a past in London long ago.

Split into parts, the first portion of the story steadily creeps along in a multitude of different times, from the present day in the voice of a mother to her injured son, to the past in London. In London, Annie was a different girl - 19 years old, in search of an education. What she did find was an education and a job, working for a man much older than she, named Malcolm. A Christmas in London with Malcolm and his family set the stage for a photograph that would haunt her and wound her family, even many years later. Coincidentally, she also met her husband on that trip, but the two lives intertwined to create Annie's history, whether or not she wanted to face it.

With well-developed characters working together to create an entertaining story,  A Small Indiscretion is a wonderful debut novel from Jan Ellison, and was a real surprise to this reader. I would definitely recommend it make your to-read list. And since it releases tomorrow, January 20, 2015, you will be able to read for yourselves.

Disclaimer: This review was part of a paid blog book tour, courtesy of Random House and 20 Something Bloggers. I received an advance copy of the novel from Random House free of charge.

As a bonus, I am giving everyone the chance to win their own copy of A Small Indiscretion! Please enter below for your chance to win! Follow the directions below for multiple chances to win.

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Guest Post: Shannon from Living With the Seat Up!

I have a great treat for you guys today - I decided to take part in 20 Something Bloggers' Blog Swap event, and have a guest post from Shannon over at Living With the Seat Up for you! Go check out her blog for my post, as well as all her others!

I would imagine not everyone was lucky enough to get to go to Disney World as a child.  I was very lucky as a child to get to go every couple years.  It became a place for all of our extended family to meet from their various locations they were living.  Thankfully, my grandfather felt this was important for bonding as a family unit, and I felt it was important for having fun.  Of course as a child you don’t think about the actual family bonding time you are spending, rather you just think about the fun times with your family.

As I said, I was very fortunate to get to go often enough, Disney World became almost like a second home.  One of the most fun memories I have is when my mother and aunt allowed my cousin and I to go to the Magic Kingdom theme park alone at 10 years old.  They loaded us onto the monorail and off we went with our hopper passes to the park full of thousands of people.  Let’s not be naive, I’m certain there were a few child abductors walking around there someplace.  It’s a good thing we were smart enough to stay away from them.

Our entire day there was spent riding all of 3 rides; Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and Thunder Run.  We ran between these 3 rides and a few times asked the ride attendants to just let us stay on for “one more round”.  We weren’t always lucky enough to be allowed this privilege, but once or twice they let us.  Of course, we pigged out on junk food and soft drinks, using our strong and robust child digestive systems to consume it all without being sick.

Looking back on it I see how crazy that is.  10 year olds these days (and probably back then too) are definitely not mature or responsible enough to be visiting large theme parks alone, without adult supervision.  But we made it out alive, and had a lot of fun.

A day alone without adult supervision, that’s my best childhood summer vacation!