One Flight Up by Susan Fales-Hill circles around four married friends, each at a different stage in their life, each unhappy in their own ways. India Chumley, our main gal, is a biracial, high powered divorce lawyer, whose clients and her own mother’s marriage keeps her from saying “yes” to all the proposals her hunky French boyfriend keeps bestowing on her. That, and the fact that she is still in love with Keith, her ex-fiancée who cheated on her weeks before their wedding date. Abby Rosenfeld Adams discovers her husband Nathaniel is having an affair, quite possibly multiple affairs, and is devastated that her high school sweetheart would throw away their years of marriage for a younger protocol. Esme Sarmiento Talbot is a spicy Colombian that has become bored of her suburban ways and too sweet husband Tim. She finds excitement with the waiter, and the bartender, and the doorman, etc. Monique Dawkins-Dubois is a successful gynecologist who married her husband mostly for his checkbook, and now is finding comfort in the arms of another employee. All friends have dived into affairs, but when their adulterous actions come back to haunt them, they must ask themselves- was it all worth it in the end?
I had a fabulous time reading One Flight Up. All the characters were similar with their unhappiness about where their life was, but all had different approaches on how to make it better. While I don’t typically like reading about affairs and cheating (I’m still a young gun that believes marriage is forever) I couldn’t help but get sucked into their world. The writing was flawless, and once I hit the middle of the novel, I really couldn’t put it down. I had to see what would happen to each woman, how she would come out of her particular situation. There really wasn’t a character I disliked, though I didn’t approve their choices, but as a reader, I could easily understand how they were feeling and why they were making their mistakes. I realized towards the end that maybe this is a little too much like my beloved Sex and the City. I saw Carrie and her Big issues with India and ex-fiancée Keith, Abby has the art loving, WASPy-like Charlotte, and Esme as a married Samantha. But that didn’t necessarily detract from my liking the book, because I’m still giving it five stars. A great book that I think chick lit fans will enjoy as well.
[Rating: 5]See Susan’s For Writers guest post!
