Review of Willow Pond by Carol Tibaldi

Title: Willow Pond
Author: Carol Tibaldi
Pages: 318
Source: Author/Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tours
Format: Paperback
Rating: 3 stars

Summary: As the Roaring Twenties crumbles into the Great Depression, Virginia Kingsley, owner of New York's swankiest and most popular speakeasy, Baccanal, learns her baby nephew is kidnapped. Is she somehow involved? His movie star father and her neice must set aside their differences to work with Virginia and her shady contacts to find the stolen child. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who befriends the mother may hold a key to the mystery. 

What a roller-coaster of a ride.  Willow Pond is filled with scandal, deceit, gangsters, tears and hope.  A heartbreaking tale about the kidnapping of a young boy and the aftermath that ensues.  With mystery and intrigue, it's hard to pin down exactly who was involved in the kidnapping and the roles they played. 

Laura is devastated by the loss of her son.  She wants him found, but is not quite sure how to go about it.  This was a trying time for her and I'm sure she is completely broken, but she also makes some rash decisions.  She falls into a new relationship fast and at the first sight of an argument gets selfish and childish.  I did like Laura in the beginning of the novel, but after a turn of events I couldn't stand her.  I thought she was acting ridiculous and spoiled.  There wasn't much depth to her; in fact, instead of connecting with her more as the novel continued I was put off by her. 

The rest of the characters I really enjoyed.  They were lively and complex which made their parts of the novel so much more interesting.  I loved how determined most of the characters were.  They took things into their own hands instead of waiting around to see what could be done.  This made the novel more interesting as there were multiple people hunting down the kidnappers, with false leads, death, more kidnapping and pure craziness that it was delightful. 

I, personally, am fascinated with "the Roaring Twenties" and while Willow Pond did feature Speakeasies and some gangsters I wish there would have been more of this in the story.  I loved the setting and wish that it would have been a greater focus in the novel.  This could just be me though and my insane desire to be a flapper.  Maybe I was one in a past life and I'm hoping for a return to the lifestyle. 

While I did enjoy this book, I still felt like it was a bit disconnected.  It would jump in time and between people and I often had to take a minute or two to orient myself.  Even with some of it's glitches, it's still a great story and a very interesting read.