Cecily had been late trying to get the kids out of the door but when she finally got off the train and was trying to get to the building she noticed it was in flames. After that Cecely only remembered bits and pieces. People running, the awful stench of burnt plastic , the crushing heat, the ringing in Ceciy’s ears, paper, debris and things she couldn’t think about raining down on her and burning holes in the belted jacket she had worn. Then she lost time again. Through it all she couldn’t move, stuck. As the fire licked the building clean . then a man pulled her hand and told her to run and they did.Now it’s one year later only now when Cecily is late her body starts to prickle with anxiety that she can’t shake without medication. Now more often than not Cecily is early Today was the first anniversary of the death of her husband Tom and Kaitlin- her best friend’s death who had both been in the building when it exploded from a gas leak Cecily would have been in there also if she had been on time. 513 people killed and more than 2000 injured. Tep greeted Cecily and he had been the man that have saved her life by grabbing her hand. Now he was doing a document on three people and how they had been affected by the tragic disaster. Three families- hers, the Ringos and Franny had been adopted and from the age of eight wanted to and tried to find her birth mother. She didn’t seem to really care about her adopted family. Her adopted parents had died in a car accident. ranny Maycombe.A year ago Teo had been scouting locations for a commercial with his assistant and then Teo had been taking pictures of some of the homeless when the building exploded and he started snapping pictures as Chicago changed forever. But once he seen the fore coming up Adams street he knew he had to leave, but he took one last picture of Cecily in a world wind of dris. Her clothes were covered in grime but her face was unmarked and Cecily was staring at the building. Teo uploaded that picture to a website and it became the shot of the day and somehow Cecily became the poster child for that tragedy. Cecily didn’t want the recognition , notoriety , the fame. Cecily told Teo she wasn’t sure she wanted to do the documentary and teo said : you have to as you are the heart of this story” . Cecily had major issues besides Tom’s death to get through. Cecily is raising two teenagers now cassie is fifteen and henry is thirteen and she doesn’t know how to fill the black hole Tom’s death had left in their lives. Cecily knew tom was cheating on her before he had died as he had mistakenly sent a text to her meant for the other woman. Cecily had hated Tom for that but she was honest with her therapist even if she ahd to lie to Tao for the documentary. Kate is living in Montreal but she has a deep connection to the explosion. Franny had just been reunited with her birth mother and then such a short time later lost her in the explosion. As the documentary crew digs deeper lies and secrets start coming to the surface as all the women to be in this documentary are hiding secrets. They all will lie some to protect loved ones and some for their own gain. Franny and cecily had become friends over the last year as the both were on the compensation board for the families of the victims that were turned down adn wanted a second chance to compensated. The more the interviews go on the more mysterious Franny seems to become. Kate is a nanny of three year old twin boys in Montreal and can’t stand to watch tv about the tragedy in Chicago that happened a year ago. But her employer -Andrea is totally into the features. Kate had escaped the explosion and Franny was her adult daughter she had given up. Cecily realizes Franny was her best friends grown daughter and she wondered why Kaitlin had not told her about Franny.
I liked the book. I really enjoyed the face past as well as the plot. I was guessing throughout the whole book so that was a plus in this type of book. Sometimes I got lost and confused trying to follow everything going on. This was like a puzzle you had to piece together. I loved the ending. I loved that there was a lot of twists and turns. Reading this was like being on a roller coaster. I would have liked to see what was really going on in Franny’s mind and not just through the interviews. There was a lot to this book: grief, adultery, anger, marriage, loss, betrayal, lies, secrets, running away, depression, anxiety, friendship, mental illness, fraud and so much more. This did drag a little for me at times. I did love the twists and turns and i am glad i read this and I recommend.
Log in with Facebook 
