The Darlings

It was a very insightful novel, with a strong cast of characters. I enjoyed the storyline very much and would definitely reccomend this book.

Loved this book had read some of it before.. loved the series Dirty Sexy Miney and this fills in the gaps

Having read and enjoyed The Banker's Wife, also by this author, I was quite intrigued to see what she would deliver next. Although this book was a bit of a marathon for me, I did read my way through it and was pretty glad I did.
So, why a marathon. Well, with what is going on in the world at the moment, like I suspect many others, I am struggling to read. My attention is wandering. So I really rely on books that I can read through easily, ones which will hold my attention nicely throughout. This book jumps around all over the place - characters, time, setting, etc, and I suspect that even if I wasn't already struggling I would have still found it a bit heavy going. That said, I have not gone heavy handed in my star rating as I did keep going and it did all eventually come together nicely at the end.
Paul Ross has married into the Darling Family. Having lost his job as an attorney he start to work for his wife's father's finance company as head of their legal team. But is his good fortune coming to an end as there's a financial crises and fingers are starting to be pointed towards certain aspects of the firm's investments? This is heightened when a key player befalls a tragic event.
Set around Thanksgiving, we follow quite a few characters as they try and make sense of what is going on in the present. These are illustrated with many forays into their pasts which adds colour and flavour to what it going on in the now. Some of whom fear for what could happen to them and their loved ones, others are relieved that finally they could be free. All will be changed by the events that occur on pretty much an hourly basis. Who will survive the fallout, and at what cost?
There are a lot of characters to get to grips with in this book. So many that I did initially struggle to keep them all straight until I started one of my famous "cast lists". This kept me on the straight and narrow enough initially that just over half way through I realised that I was no longer needing to refer to it. Most of them are, shall we say, not that nice. But many have reasons for their behaviour and feelings of entitlement, others just want to get their jobs done. An eclectic mix to say the least.
As you would expect, this book is jam packed full of secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour. As the narrative progresses, more of these are exposed and uncovered and the whole truth starts to come to light. It does take a while to get to that point but it is worth it when you get there. But en route I did have to slog through a bit too much (for me) of the financial shenanigans that, although I did eventually get, did distract me from the main story a tad.
All in all, a bit of a slog for me to get through but my own grit and determination was rewarded at the end. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I started off this book not being really sure if I liked it or not, but actually ended up really enjoying it by the end.

It was set in the high finance world of hedge funds, stocks and shares etc. so a lot of it went completely over my head to be honest, and I did skip over descriptive parts of this, not knowing what the heck they were talking about(!), but once I got over this I really enjoyed the parts about the Darling family and the associated people surrounding them.

The story is about the very rich Darling family, the head of which is Carter Darling, who has dragged himself up from nothing and made it to the top of the financial tree.  His wife and daughters have wanted for nothing.  But then a partner/good friend commits suicide and their financial world is thrown into turmoil when it turns out a hedge fund he was managing is actually a Ponzi scheme and billions of dollars are missing.

Of course then it's every man/woman for themselves with people being thrown under the bus in an effort to save their skins.  The story is set over a short period and labelled with each chapter, so makes easy reading.  It made you keep reading to find out who would come out of it relatively unscathed in the end, and who would end up in prison.

The whole world was cutthroat though and definitely not one I'd like to live in!  There were some really interesting characters, but quite a few of them, so I did find it hard to figure out who went where intially, and sometimes you wondered how they all fit together, but it all became clearer as the book went on.

My favourites were Marina Darling and her husband Paul, they were the most honest ones just trying to live their lives and be happy. There was also a slight mystery/unanswered question about one character, so I did love the epilogue that tied up that loose end.

In the end a book I really enjoyed.

Bonfire of the Vanities moves into this century. The Darlings, set in New York during Thanksgiving week in the financial crisis of 2008, details the collapse of a financial empire and the deterioration of the family that runs it. Both have been coming, visible only under the surface, for a long time, but outer stress makes all problems, personal and professional faced by the Darling family, obvious.

The probable suicide of Uncle Morty Reis, major investor for Delphic Investments, begins an unstoppable chain of events. The Darling family, Carter Darling, wife Ines and daughters Merrill, husband Paul and Lily with her husband Adrian, are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving at the family home in the Hamptons. With that as background, the unraveling begins. The involvement of the SEC is fraught with its own inner problems and politicalization. A jaded editor and his assistant uncover Reis’ Madoff-like scheme. Meanwhile, at the Darling compound, relationships are tested as dinner is served at the heavily decorated holiday table.

The Darlings combines a thriller set in the world of high finance with the story of a family torn apart by greed. The Darlings’ world of high society, devoid of loyalty, is populated by well described, although not always likable, characters. The novel is tightly plotted and well written with an epilogue that provides the perfect ending. 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Cristina Alger for this ARC.

The Darlings is a scandalously riveting page turner full of suspense, intrigue and oozes greed and wealth in the way only New York's high society can.
Absolutely fantastic read.