The Darlings by Cristina Alger

Paul Ross married Merrill Darling, not knowing about the foreign life he would be thrown into. He became used to an elite New York life. Due to economic hardships, Paul loses his job. But luckily (or unluckily, however you choose to think about it), Carter Darling (Paul's father-in-law) offers him a job to oversee a legal team at his company. Then a large-size scandal shakes the company and that Darlings are thrust into the public eye, but not in a good way. Paul receives some information and must decide whether he wants to save himself and Merrill, or protect his family's name. As you read on through this novel, you realize that things on the outside are not always how they appear to be, and there is so much more to know.

I originally wanted to read this because I read a review for it in Entertainment Weekly and they mentioned it as being "like Gossip Girl", and of course the fangirl in me was like "GOSSIP GIRL” and put it on my to-read list without further thought. After reading it, I reflect back on its “gossipgirlness” and realize that the only things they have in common are that they take place in New York, they are part of the elite upper class, and there is a scandal. That’s all. LOL.

I thought the concept of this book was pretty interesting, but I think it would have been better for me to know more about the whole Wall Street issues before reading this. The good things about this novel were the interesting moral dilemmas, because I do love to contemplate those. I also loved the romantic part of this novel. And when I say “romantic” I don’t mean there’s a huge romance aspect, I just mean that I love the way that Paul and Merrill think of each other and their thoughts in the narrative. They truly, truly love one another and the author describes it perfectly. I fell in love with Paul a little bit just because it was so adorable how much he loves his wife.

Otherwise, I found this novel to be really slow and LONG. It was kinda boring to be honest. I also had a somewhat difficult time following all the character’s narrations. There is seriously like 7 people telling the story (not through 1^st person) and they have similar sounding names, so I don’t know. It’s probably me haha. I probably would have been more into the story if the author had done a Jodie Picoult thing where there are different fonts and easily divided chapters of different narrators.

I think this book would make an interesting movie but as a novel, it was just okay for me. The end was really cool though, in my opinion! 3 out of 5 stars.