AUDIO BOOK WEEK! THE ENGAGEMENTS: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

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GIVEAWAY ENDED 
THE ENGAGEMENTS
Read By Kimberly Farr
BY J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN  

ABOUT THE BOOK: 
From the New York Times best-selling author of Commencement and Maine comes a gorgeous, sprawling novel about marriage—about those who marry in a white heat of passion, those who marry for partnership and comfort, and those who live together, love each other, and have absolutely no intention of ruining it all with a wedding. 

Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years--forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine knows both sides of love--the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction, and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it's over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife's family thinks she could have done better; while Kate, partnered with Dan for ten years, has seen every kind of wedding--from the Nantucket beach wedding to the Irish castle wedding--and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own. 

As these lives and marriages unfold in surprising ways, we meet Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter in 1947. Frances is working on the De Beers campaign and she needs a signature line, so, one night before bed, she scribbles a phrase on a scrap of paper: “A Diamond Is Forever.” And that line changes everything.

A rich, layered, exhilarating novel spanning nearly a hundred years,

The Engagements captures four wholly unique marriages, while tracing the story of diamonds in America, and the way—for better or for worse—these glittering stones have come to symbolize our deepest hopes for everlasting love.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel Commencement. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune, New York, Elle, Glamour, Allure, and Men’s Vogue, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

HAVE YOU READ THESE OTHER BOOKS BY J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN?  

                    

AN EXCERPT FROM THE ENGAGEMENTS:
1947

Frances poured the last bitter remains of the coffeepot into her cup. The small kitchen table was covered in paper: layouts, copies of confidential reports, lousy ideas she had scrapped hours ago, and good ones, already published in Look, Vogue, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Harper’s Bazaar, to remind her that she had done it before and could do it again.

For once, the apartment building was silent. Usually, from off in some distant corner she could hear a baby crying, a couple arguing, a toilet flushing. But it was past three a.m. The revelers had long been asleep, and the milkmen weren’t yet awake.

Her roommate had gone to bed around ten— at the sight of her standing there in her nightgown and curlers, Frances was overcome with professional jealousy, even though Ann was only a secretary in a law office, who would spend tomorrow the same way she spent every day, fetching coffee and taking dictation. To finish reading this excerpt, visit the Random House website HERE.

PRAISE FOR THE ENGAGEMENTS:
“A perceptive portrait . . . In Sullivan’s easy, unadorned style, The Engagements is a delightful marriage of cultural research and literary entertainment . . . Sullivan handles all the details elegantly, and the situations are surprisingly distinct . . . For all her sharp wit and insight into the agony of failed relationships, Sullivan’s no cynic. The novel’s final wedding transcends the craziness and the extravagance and the bickering. Against all odds, it represents something genuinely eternal about the love between two people.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“The Engagements is a rollicking, entertaining read and a thought-provoking one too. Several of the characters’ voices have stayed in my head, and even days after putting it down I am left with a sturdy, hopeful sense of the fundamental goodwill of people and the abiding power of love . . . [I] am certain it will be one of this summer’s big hits.”—Lindsey Mead, Huffington Post

“The best-selling author of Commencement and Maine has written her most ambitious novel yet.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A seamless tapestry . . . Sullivan is a keen observer of people and how they morph over time, either being softened by the years or made more brittle by strife.”—Bronwyn Miller, BookReporter.com

“[Sullivan] threads her story with the glitter of diamonds . . . a tale that sweeps across varied emotional landscapes.”—New York Daily News

“This novel’s concept is as shiny as a diamond itself.” —Glamour

“Sullivan has written an intricate, beautifully timed novel, so delicious in its gradual unfolding that readers will want to reread it immediately to enjoy the fully realized ties.”—Beth Andersen, Library Journal

“Satisfying . . . At each stage of the game, the engagement ring has a different meaning.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Delving into the allure of ‘for better or worse,’ Sullivan’s novel starts with Frances, an unmarried copywriter who coins the ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ slogan, then follows four couples to the altar. Frank, but fun.”—Good Housekeeping Summer Beach Roundup

“The author of Maine and Commencement returns with a sprawling tale about marriage, its meaning, its importance and whether or not a diamond really is forever.”—Ashley Ross, Marie Claire

 “The author of Commencement and Maine threads her story with the glitter of diamonds . . . It’s a tale that sweeps across varied emotional landscapes.”—Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News

“The bestselling author of Maine and Commencement opens her third novel with the tale of Frances Gerety, the real-life ad copywriter who coined ‘A diamond is forever’ for De Beers.  It’s the perfect springboard for Sullivan’s story, which follows four couples as they navigate the shifting terrain of love and marriage.”—People Magazine

“This sprawling novel about marriage spans nearly 100 years and focuses on four couples, as well as a young single copywriter who coins the ad slogan ‘Diamonds Are Forever,’ which resonates through the decades.”—Cathleen Schine, Los Angeles Times
 
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Having liked COMMENCEMENT so much, I was not surprised that I enjoyed J. Courtney Sullivan’s latest best seller, THE ENGAGEMENTS. Sullivan gives readers an unusually scripted narrative in which a true story lead her to create THE ENGAGEMENTS. An advertising agency came up with the now popular “diamonds are forever“ phrase, thus initially signifying engagements following World War II. Based on the true story of Frances Gerety, a copywriter for an ad agency, comes that well-known diamond ring advertisement. THE ENGAGEMENTS has Sullivan writing stories woven around the one engagement ring Gerety was inspired by. With her marvelous writing technique, the diamond ring connection not only helps to tell, but also to link the other stories. Each story is representative of the time period it is set in and as THE ENGAGEMENTS goes on, readers will start to realize how the people and couples relate to each other. Just when one might think they are reading a book of thematic short stories, Sullivan flawlessly draws all the tales together.

The stories range from the 1920s when a Boston matron named Evelyn Pearsall looks upon the ring as a sad memory of her doomed love. Having married her college sweetheart, only to stand by as he died of an automobile accident, the last thing Evelyn thought was that there was another person who would come along to share her grief and her love. 

To the 1980s we meet James, a down and out rock musician, who also works as an EMT but doesn’t make enough money to give his family what he knows they deserve. The last straw for him just might be when his wife is attacked and her engagement ring is stolen. How can James ever make that up to her?

While following 9/11, Delphine has settled into a secure, if not passionate, marriage with her business partner, Henri. In her 40s, Delphine never remotely expected to find the things missing in her marriage in a younger man who she just can’t resist. And then there is Kate, currently living in New York, and totally against engagement rings and everything wedding! To her it represents consumerism at its best, using the poor African workers to mine those diamonds! What was the big deal with huge weddings and all the trappings? She and boyfriend Dan have a young daughter named Ava and are forced to go along with this wedding nightmare as her family “celebrates” a cousin’s wedding to his partner. What was the relevance of such a ceremony and so much waste, she thought?

And with all these stories playing out and then coming together to the great wonder of this reader, J. Courtney Sullivan once again shows her amazing talent as a writer and storyteller. THE ENGAGEMENTS is filled with twists and turns and so many “a-ha” moments that is makes for a perfect book club discussion. Find a group if you don’t belong to one as you will surely want to talk about the people you meet in THE ENGAGEMENTS!    

GIVEAWAY 

THANKS TO RICHARD AND THE GOOD PEOPLE
AT RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO BOOKS, I HAVE ONE
COPY OF J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN'S AUDIO BOOK,
  THE ENGAGEMENTS, TO GIVE AWAY 
  TO ONE OF MY LUCKY FOLLOWERS
    

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
 6 PM, EST, JULY 17

 

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