Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson

 

Description

This unputdownable debut follows three women in an old Brooklyn Heights clan: one who was born with money, one who married into it, and one who wants to give it all away.

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, carefully guarded Stockton family, has never had to worry about money. She followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood, sacrificing more of herself than she ever intended. Sasha, Darley's new sister-in-law, has come from more humble origins, and her hesitancy about signing a pre-nup has everyone worried about her intentions. And Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can't (and really shouldn't) have, and must confront the kind of person she wants to be.

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York's one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognisable, loveable - if fallible - characters, it's about the peculiar unknowability of someone else's family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love - all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

Review

An interesting read.

This is a story about people with untold wealth and old New York money, so that was not something that I could relate to immediately. The story flips between the three women of the Stockton family. Two born into it and Sasha who has married into the family and money. 

Some of the story goes into the past lives of the three women and provides a backdrop to see how they got where they are now. The style of writing is very clipped, very NY and moves along at speed. I could relate to Sasha the most with her realisation that when the chips are down, family sticks together against you whether you are in the right or not.

A few twists along the way and not the ending I was expecting meant I kept reading this book to the last page. I got so caught up in the lives of these people that I forgot I had finished it, and was wondering today what was going to happen next.

The book lost one star for me as some of the USA references didn't translate for me. So I am giving this book 4 out of stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. The book is out 13 April 2023.