Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

From the Publisher

In the summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn; Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the mainstay of their lives.

From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success...and loneliness.

All Kate really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her...how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend....

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship - jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They thinkthey’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart...and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you - and knows what has the power to hurt you...and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget...one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.

Publishers Weekly

Hannah (On Mystic Lake) goes a little too far into Lifetime movie territory in her latest, an epic exploration of the complicated terrain between best friends-one who chooses marriage and motherhood while the other opts for career and celebrity. The adventures of poor, ambitious Tully Hart and middle-class romantic Kate Mularkey begin in the 1970s, but don't really get moving until about halfway into the book, when Tully, who claws her way to the heights of broadcast journalism, discovers it's lonely at the top, and Katie, a stay-at-home Seattle housewife, forgets what it's like to be a rebellious teen. What holds the overlong narrative together is the appealing nature of Tully and Katie's devotion to one another even as they are repeatedly tested by jealousy and ambition. Katie's husband, Johnny, is smitten with Tully, and Tully, who is abandoned by her own booze-and-drug-addled mother, relishes the adoration from Katie's daughter, Marah. Hannah takes the easy way out with an over-the-top tear-jerker ending, though her upbeat message of the power of friendship and family will, for some readers, trump even the most contrived plot twists. (Feb.)

Mary Knapp - Library Journal

Tully Hart is one of the most popular girls in school, though her mother abandons her frequently to her grandmother's care. Kate Mularkey has a stable family life but feels she is an outcast with no friends. Though they couldn't be more different, Kate and Tully become best friends for life in 1974, when they are both in eighth grade and living on Firefly Lane. At the beginning of their 30-year friendship, they set out for careers in journalism, but ultimately their lives take different paths. Kate becomes a stay-at-home mom, while Tully has a glamorous life, first as a television reporter and then as a talk-show host. Both have regrets, but Tully has more and is not beyond appropriating Kate's family, especially her daughter, Marah, when she feels the need. Plot threads include mother-daughter relationships, jealousy, friendship, family, and cultural and social references of the times (clothing brands, rock songs, hairstyles, movies, etc.). The story is overlong and formulaic in places, but Hannah's many fans will not be deterred; they will enjoy the book, with its tearjerker ending. Read competently and unobtrusively by Susan Ericksen, this is recommended for all popular fiction collections.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School -Tully Hart, vulnerable and abandoned by her mother, meets Katie Mularkey in 1974, when they are both in eighth grade. Katie, feeling unpopular and underappreciated, is drawn to dramatic, bold, and beautiful Tully, while Tully is attracted to the loving and stable Mularkey family. After spending many wild and fun times together and sharing their deepest thoughts with one another, they pledge "best friends forever." Readers will follow the friendship for 30 years and will identify with the intense loyalty and unconditional love that Tully, a successful television personality, and Katie, a stay-at-home mom, have for one another. This changes when Tully betrays and humiliates Katie in a way she cannot forgive. Until their reconciliation, they are both bereft and feel the loss of their friendship sorely. Though Tully's character is somewhat shallow and stereotypical, her larger-than-life personality is compelling, and the story flows well. At times melodramatic, this novel about the friendship of the two very different women and its themes of betrayal and reconciliation will keep readers turning the pages. You might want to recommend a box of tissues to go along with this tear-jerking, yet hopeful book.-Jane Ritter, Mill Valley School District, CA

Kirkus Reviews

Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah's maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State. Tallulah "Tully" Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her "best friend forever," Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, "TullyandKate" pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny's second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle's answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate's buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, onlyto blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully's latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she's given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it's too late?Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters' willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy. First printing of 200,000

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