The Bride Will Keep Her Name

The Bride Will Keep Her Name

Jan Goldstein

4 out of 5

It is sad when you have to get to page 213 of a 255 page book to get to a part that really resonates with you. Its one thing to read a mystery and figure out the who-done-it part, but when you read a book that solidly fits into the women's fiction category, the reader is expecting a little more meat early on.

Jan Goldstein, a man who actually hits the woman voice with surprising accuracy, introduces us to Madison Mandelbaum days before her fairytale wedding to the too good to be true Colin Darcy.

"Talk, talk, talk," Bubbe said, climbing down off her chair. "How does anybody build an honest relationship with such things?"

"What do people do when they don't know what to believe anymore?" I stammered.

"They love, "she said, her eyes on me as if there were no others in the room."They see it all, and they still choose to love. That's how it goes, shayna," she said, coming toward me. "We human beings, we come and go," she explained. "The love, it lives on. We get to hold it for a while, be burned by it, learn from it, experience its pain and its passions. We embrace it, wrestle with it, like Jacob and the angel. And like that all-night wrestling match, if we prevail, even a part of the time, we end up with a blessing."

Then poof, it's bordering on so-so again, then poof its good again, Mr. Goldstein has me wondering if he is a frustrated thriller/mystery writer just wanting to break out of the women's thing and into a better book centered on mystery societies and golden pigs. I think he might be on to something there.

So, the long and short of this book is, guess you never thought I would get to this part, Madison Mandelbaum receives an anonymous e-mail that suggests that her fiancé may not be the man she thinks he is. Sinister phone calls and disturbing clues turn up all linking Colin to the murder of a call girl. With the help of her two best friends, which Colin refers to as the witches in Macbeth, Madison has just days, if no hours to figure out if Colin is who she thinks he is or if she is capable of marrying someone who is not so perfect.