A Family Affair

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A Family Affair
Mary Campisi
2011

The Summary
For Christine Blackworth, learning her father died was hard enough. And learning he has had a fourteen year affair - and a child with another woman - has been nigh unbearable for Christine and her family.

But, when Christine visits her father's second family in Magdalena, she's in for a surprise to learn that her father's life in Chicago may not have been the one he cherished after all - and, soon, her own choices come into question as she commutes back and forth and learns more about her father's life, and her own half-sister.

The Good
A Family Affair is nicely paced, moving at a steady speed and providing readers with a fairly simple, straight forward format. Additionally, Mary Campisi's novel proves to be of a manageable length and fairly well-written.

It's enjoyable, sweetly endearing, and easy to read, perhaps not eating up more than a leisurely afternoon or two.

The Bad
Although Campisi forms a nice story overall - appropriately combining elements of suspense and romantic fiction, culminating in an endearing story of family bonds and loving beyond the usual limits - the characters do not always seem fully formed.  Occasionally, they appear vague and indistinct, (emotionally speaking, that is).

More to the point, dialogue between characters seems spotty in one or two areas with some characters having their statements split apart at strange intervals.  Additionally, certain characters sometimes appear to overlap, making it difficult to distinguish one character's thoughts and actions from another.

The Ugly
The past is a difficult thing to reconcile.

For Christine and this new extension of her family, it may be all but impossible with past indiscretions and strict, traditional notions of family standing in the way.