The Darlings

by Cristina Alger

A sophisticated page-turner about a wealthy New York family embroiled in a financial scandal with cataclysmic consequences. Now that he's married to Merrill Darling, daughter of billionaire financier Carter Darling, attorney Paul Ross has grown accustomed to New York society and all of its luxuries: a Park Avenue apartment, weekends in the Hamptons, bespoke suits. When Paul loses his job, Carter offers him the chance to head the legal team at his hedge fund. Thrilled with his good fortune in the midst of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, Paul accepts the position.

But Paul's luck is about to shift: a tragic event catapults the Darling family into the media spotlight, a regulatory investigation, and a red-hot scandal with enormous implications for everyone involved. Suddenly, Paul must decide where his loyalties lie-will he save himself while betraying his wife and in-laws or protect the family business at all costs?

Cristina Alger's glittering debut novel interweaves the narratives of the Darling family, two eager SEC attorneys, and a team of journalists all racing to uncover-or cover up-the truth. With echoes of a fictional "Too Big to Fail" and the novels of Dominick Dunne, "The Darlings" offers an irresistible glimpse into the highest echelons of New York society-a world seldom seen by outsiders-and a fast-paced thriller of epic proportions.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, New York, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Finance

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 16, 2012

Reviews

[Suzanne Leopold (Suzy Approved Book Reviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carter Darling is CEO of the prestigious financial firm, Delphic. His close knit family has benefited from his success and his enormous wealth has provided them with a life filled with luxuries. He has two daughters whose husbands are both employed by the business.

Paul Ross works as general counsel for Delphic, and is married to Carter’s daughter, Merrill. His father in law hired him while Wall Street was suffering from the economic crisis of 2008. A few months into his employment, the SEC contacted him with concerns that one of their hedge funds could be involved in a Ponzi scheme.

Events quickly unfold over Thanksgiving weekend after a principal partner of Delphic commits suicide. The Darling family spends their holiday under a dark cloud anxious for what the future has in store for their family. A plan of action is constructed and Paul must decide if he wants to participate. It's a defining moment because he must decide between family, money and doing what's right.

This novel is a story that utilizes the financial industry as a backdrop but is not complicated for those lacking a background. There are various secondary characters introduced which help develop and support the plot. The book is filled with secrets, funny descriptions and suspense.

3 copy giveaway on my blog until 3/1 https://www.facebook.com/suzyapproved...

[Ceecee · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. For Denmark, substitute New York City, specifically Reis Capital Management led by Morty Reis. The SEC are about to swoop as to say the least there is financial irregularity, a major fraud which seems to be a Ponzi scheme of Madoff proportions.

Carter Darling (sorry but I keep expecting to hear Tinkerbell!) is the CEO of Delphic, a multi million/billion/gazillion financial institutions and Delphic has a 30% investment in RCM. As the family gather in where else but The Hamptons for Thanksgiving the knives are out. Who will take the fall? Be the sacrificial lamb? Thrown to the investigative wolves? Carter believes in family first, play by the rules (but who’s rules??) as long as you save your own neck and let truth take a backseat.

Well for me that is about as interesting as it gets. The financial ins and outs are very complex which is fine, I’m not an idiot and I don’t expect things to be dumbed down and I was quite prepared to let that wash over me in return for a darn good yarn. My hopes were for ‘Dirty Sexy Money’ meets ‘Billions’ with a nice bit of ‘Revenge’ and ‘The Good Fight’ chucked in for good measure. What we actually get is so many personalities with so many irrelevant back stories that interrupts the meat of the story and so that gets utterly lost in the morass. Most of the characters are unlikable with the exception of his son in law Paul and his daughter Merrill who are both decent and hardworking. There are an awful lot of coincidences as well that stretch your credulity. However, there are some sections that I really enjoy just a shame that it is interrupted by a section on yet another character. The end is quite twisty but I can’t say it is a great surprise.

Overall, an average read which is a shame because the premise is interesting although perhaps it’s been done in television programmes!.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton - a republication????

[B the BookAddict · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Darlings is the story about a Thanksgiving weekend of the Darling family, uber wealthy and beautiful, who live in that rare ether of New York’s elite. Carter Darling heads a large financial institution and son-in-law Paul is his General Counsel. In his short story, The Rich Boy, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” While The Darlings might travel in rarefied circles normally, their reactions are suitably base when news comes of the death of one of their own, a fraud and an SEC investigation; dismay, fear and the flurry of apportioning of blame.

Usually for me, reading of a Company mired in the heart of a Ponzi scheme and the consequences might prove be rather dry reading but Cristina Alger kept the story afloat and always interesting by having her story focus on Paul and each of the Darlings, individually. As the story evolves, she introduces you at length to each member of the family so that the novel is so much more a social drama/financial epistle. Alger has worked as an attorney in New York where she was born and raised; she really knows her stuff, understanding the quintessential New Yorker, wealth, the law and power. The Darlings might be her debut novel but Alger is quite the writer; she possesses an elegance, an ease with words; smooth, free flowing and articulate. Originally a book I hesitated over, The Darlings proved to be an altogether addictive novel. 4★

For your interest:
The very first Ponzi schemer was Charles Ponzi who became known for the financial crimes he committed when he conned investors into giving him millions of dollars, and paid them returns with other investors' money. Born in 1882 in Italy, Charles Ponzi ran a highly profitable and expansive investment scheme but was arrested on August 12, 1920, and charged with 86 counts of mail fraud. Owing an estimated $7 million, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud, and subsequently spent 14 years in prison. A few million seems like small change to the huge losses sustained in the 2008 US financial crash.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

have you been looking for a novel set in the financial crisis, centering around a bernie madoff-style ponzi scheme & the manner in which its fall-out impacts a wealthy new york family? & have you been hoping that the book would be about 97% exposition & 3% story, & that what little story there is would be pretty much comically improbable? look no further! the darlings is the book for you!

ugh. this book reads like the author filled an entire five-subject notebook with character notes & background research & then shoehorned every last bit of it into the book, at the expense of an actual compelling story. basically, the bernie madoff character offs himself because he knows he's about to be busted, & this is bad news for the darling family because the patriarch runs some kind of huge hedge fund/investment company thing, & the bernie madoff character is one of his most prominent (albeit secretive) investors. & he's having an affair with someone else mixed up in all this crap (i won't say who, but if you're anything like me, you will guess the second the character is introduced). both sons-in-law work for the company, & one of them recently wrote some incriminating e-mails about how everyone should leave bernie madoff alone & let him do his own thing. ruh roh! do you think he'll be framed for culpability? a muckraking investigative journalist gets his mitts on the story because his beloved niece conveniently works for the SEC? ruh roh! do you think he'll uncover the truth in time to save the innocent? do you think that all of this potential tension will be dampened & interrupted by long asides about how one time, this character had a dog & he really liked walking it, & this other character has a hilarious memory about a thanksgiving turkey, etc etc?

you can bet on it!

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for The Darlings, after having read The Bankers Wife and Girls Like Us and loving them. This book was not the story I had hoped for.

Set after the 2008 financial crisis in banking there is alot of detail and description of the world of finance in New York. I was bored. The characters were all very selfish and unlikable.

It really wasn't for me. Thank you Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton/Mulholland Books. Sorry I didn't enjoy it more

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a time when the attention of the country is on the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the 99%, Christina Alger’s book centers on that elusive 1% -- the truly wealthy. And she does it so well.

It was no surprise for me to read that she had worked as an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and as an attorney at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr. Only a true insider could have written a book as authentic as this one. It’s page gripping and authentic, thrilling and gasp-inducing. In short, it’s a winner.

The family that is about to be thrust into a Bernie Madoff-type storm is the Darlings: Carter Darling, the CEO of a prestigious hedge fund, his son-in-law Paul who accepts a position as the head of his legal team, his daughter, Merrill, a sharp attorney in her own right who is married to Paul, and several other well-drawn characters.

When a tragic event occurs in the opening pages, the Darlings are suddenly thrust into the middle of a red-hot scandal and a regulatory investigation, with the SEC and the media breathing down its neck. Paul – who deep down is a good guy – will soon be asked to choose between saving his own hide and protecting the family. It’s all part of the dog-eat-dog world of the financial world gone haywire…a time when trips to Aspen are being cancelled, summer homes are on the market, and jobs are going the way of the dinosaur.

Christina Alger does not take the easy way out. The financial world is complicated and she refuses to dumb it down…which is not to say the book is inaccessible. You don’t need to know much about finances to “get it.” She casts her net expertly, demonstrating the interactions between the private fund, the fund-of-funds, the SEC, the press, the prosecutors and the highest echelons of New York society.

From the inner workings of the investment world to their private bedrooms…from their homes in the thick of Manhattan to their private getaways in the Hamptons…this is a book that sunk its hooks into me and wouldn’t let go. It’s a must-read for anyone who wonders what really happens when a financial scandal goes down.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cristina Alger is a talented author who knows how to craft a taut thriller. She takes a cliched plot (the well-known Bernie Madoff scandal) and adds her own twists. I could easily see this novel becoming a movie. Alger is also an acute social observer of different NYC archetypes and uses minute details to situate every character in his/her proper milieu. As a business school graduate, I was glad to see that the financial (and legal) details discussed in this book are for the most part accurate.

I do have some reservations about this novel, however. There are simply too many coincidences that don't add up. What is the likelihood that Paul (the protagonist) and Alexa (the SEC lawyer investigating him) would come from the same small town in North Carolina, in addition to being ex-lovers? How does Alexa just happen to be related to the editor-in-chief of a Vogue-like magazine if she grew up in the middle of nowhere? And how did both of their fathers just happen to end up in NYC (which is a long way from small-town North Carolina)? In addition, how is it possible that Alexa and Merrill (Paul's wife) have never met despite the fact that Alexa, Merrill, and Paul all attended Harvard Law School? And why are we treated to long, convoluted backstories about minor characters if these stories do not contribute to later plotlines in the novel?

Despite these reservations, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel and enjoyed it overall.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my top books of 2012. It was a quick read, but still felt deep enough. It was refreshing (against the other books I've read lately), well-laid out, and well written. The story was obviously very close to the times (a bunch of rich folks, a ponzi scheme) so it felt almost like seeing in to what is going on with many families now. I was quite drawn in to the family (especially the marriage of Merrill and Paul) and while I don't understand why the "bad guys" did the things they did, I TOTALLY felt for the family they hurt and betrayed. I loved how the characters tied together, it was like the flick Love Actually where you discovered how people crossed all throughout the book/movie. I also liked the ending. It was somehow open-ended and still wrapped up all the pieces. I think there was only one sentence I didn't like. After a lovely description of her relationship with New York Alger wrote of the character, "New York, she realized, was a sea filled with ships, slipping silently by one another on their way in and out of port." But that's it.

[Bennett Gavrish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grade: D+

L/C Ratio: 40/60
(This means I estimate the author devoted 40% of her effort to creating a literary work of art and 60% of her effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Wall Street corruption
30% - Family crisis
10% - New York high society
10% - Legal dealings
10% - Journalism


Perhaps Alger was setting herself up to fail when she decided to write a literary novel from the perspective of the Wall Street elite during the Great Recession. But what makes the characters in The Darlings hard to relate to is not that they are rich snobs – it's that they are boring rich snobs.

Alger literally jumps between a dozen different point of views in the book, and even though these stories all overlap, they never successfully mesh together into a steady plot. Also, no character ever emerges as the lead hero or lead villain, which leads the reader to feel an overall indifference to the entire cast. The author interrupts every chapter with details about each character's past, but these anecdotes come off as more of a contrived exercise than true character development.

Even a big twist in the conclusion can't save The Darlings, because long before then, the story loses the potential to captivate its readers.


Noteworthy Quote:

“To be jealous of money is uninspired,” Eleanor would say with a dismissive wave of the hand. “You can only be jealous of someone who has something that you can never have. More style, for example, or wit. Money is easily earned.”

[Anissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book that I decided I needed to read because my TBR pile is vast and unwieldy. This was near the back end and was a pretty swift read.

[Jessica J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hesitated on reading this one for a long time, because it's gotten pretty mixed reviews here on Goodreads. A lot of the negative feedback seems to center on the fact that Cristina Alger might be trying to ask her readers to sympathize with characters who are primarily one-percenters.

That's a tricky area. Fox News would have you believe that the Occupy Wall Street movement was all about people who resent the wealthy and feel like they are undeserving. They like to cast the uberwealthy as noble folks that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and those who support tighter financial regulations, higher taxes on top earners, and social welfare as jealous peons who expect everything to be handed to them. I consider myself a liberal and I believe in a graduated income tax. I was infuriated to find out that Mitt Romney paid a much, much lower tax rate than I did in 2011 and I certainly believe that his excessive wealth meant that he had no clue what it's like for the average American. My problem in the battle of superwealthy versus supernot is the fact that, more often than not, circumstance and luck play a bigger role than anything else. People born into wealth are more likely to have opportunities not available to those born into poverty. Is that fair? Not really, but I know that's a fact of life. At the same time, that doesn't mean that people who aren't katrillionaires aren't hard working. I guess I don't really resent the wealthy for their wealth so much as I resent when they look down on those who aren't.

So that's it for the political rant. I don't want to get into a fight about the haves and the have-nots. But you're probably not going to like this book if you have particularly strong sympathies for the Occupy movement.

To me, this book wasn't really about making wealthy people likable or justifying the crimes of people like Bernie Madoff, whose story is echoed in the plot. The Darling family patriarch, Carter, is the CEO of an investment company; one of their hedge fund managers commits suicide the day before Thanksgiving and it begins to drip out that he may have been running a Ponzi scheme. Carter's son-in-law Paul recently started working at the firm and finds himself in the middle of the scandal as he faces the decision of doing what he believes is right and protecting the family. Among the myriad characters in the fray are a legal secretary, an SEC investigator, a cub reporter and her boss, and the Darling offspring. Alger pieces together her story bit by bit, allowing each character's perspective to fill us in on a piece of the scheme.

What I think Alger does well is not so much asking you to sympathize with the 1% or assuming that they are all conniving, scheming moneygrubbers. There's a lot of gray in here, the dilemmas faced by the characters are not black and white and not everything is as it seems. Sometimes the ins and outs of the financial world got to be a little much -- a kindergartner could probably manage his money more effectively that I do -- but that's not really all that important. What is important is that this was ultimately a well-constructed story that simply compelled me to keep turning the pages.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I only read this because I was hungry for a glimpse into the lives of New York's elite; to be honest, I think what I really wanted was Gossip Girl.

Two stars because I liked the amount of detail that went into the characters' relationships and backstories. That being said, there were WAY too many characters and they were all exactly the same, there was way too much information, and I found the whole scandal/crime to be highly implausible. It was just way too unrealistic.

I also didn't like how different characters kept discovering secrets and the reader wasn't let in on any of them throughout. I understand the mystery should reveal itself over time but it happened way too often and frustrated me: "they bent their heads together and began to discuss" and then the chapter ends.

I guess I'll just go watch Gossip Girl now.

[Katie Bueltel · Rating 1 out of 5]

*** SPOILER ALERTS ***

Christina Alger’s debut novel has many readers intrigued. Bouncing between the perspectives of three main groups, The Darlings incorporates every opinion on the Wall Street Scandal. Taking place over Thanksgiving, the novel focuses around a family, the Darlings, and their friends, a magazine office, and the agency investigating the Ponzi scheme. After the suicide of Morty Reis, his company is thrown into the limelight as investigations discover his buisness’ illegitimacy. Carter Darling happens to be the CEO of the company with the most funds invested in Reis’ company. As Carter and his staff of lawyers attempt to find an escape route, Carter’s son-in-law, Paul, joins the company as a general counsel after he lost his job due to another financial scandal. The story also jumps to Duncan, the main editor of a magazine. He and his staff are looking for the next big story and discover the Ponzi scheme and the Darlings role in it. The final group the novel presents is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. The SEC investigates the Darling family and all other companies connected to Reis’ company. Carter’s lawyers convince him the only way out is to pin the blame on other officers and Carter goes along with it. His lawyers end up trying to pin the blame on a SEC Agent and Paul. However directly after this, Paul and his wife, Merrill, go to the SEC to turn over everything they have on Carter and Morty. In the end, Carter and his lawyers are on trial and everyone from assistants to coworkers to daughters have turned on one another in an attempt to save themselves or their morality. The Darlings explores the lives of socialites and lowly assistants as well as it attempts to paint a picture of the turmoil caused by the Wall Street Scandal.
One of the many main characters, Paul, is also the only character given enough space in the novel to properly develop and evolve as the novel continues. He begins by thinking only about the money he needs to help support himself, his wife, and their lavish lifestyle. He only takes up his job with Carter Darling because he feels it is the only way to sustain it. He even states that under normal circumstances, he would never even consider working for him. However as event unfold, Paul’s only worry is for his wife and her opinion of him and his decisions. He wants to remain loyal and faithful to her no matter what and discovers that is all she ever wanted as well. Even though they both end up betraying Carter, they stand by each other and Paul learns the importance of love and loyalty.
I do not recommend this book to anyone. There are more main characters than one can count and the writing perspective changes mid-page without warning. It is very hard to follow a plot line when one is consistently trying to discover which character’s perspective is being expressed. Also, the novel contains flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks with no warning again as to when things are changing. Even though each chapter is titled with the day and time when it began, it is still very hard to understand when events took place. The final straw for me, however, was the endless financial and social jargon which took up the entire first 200 pages of the novel. It did nothing to further the story and served only to fill pages. The only parts of the book which held my attention were the first 20 or so pages and the last 50. The rest were unnecessarily detailed detracting from the overall novel. If I had to recommend this book, I believe only someone interested in finance and/or the Wall Street Scandal could handle so much finance in a fictional book.

[Felice · Rating 1 out of 5]

March came in as a snow day and my snow day read, The Darlings by Cristina Alger, came in as a bore. In this debut novel, a financial thriller, Alger was unable to convince me why I should care about stereotypical, self centered, extremely rich characters who might lose all their money and their family owned investment company in a Madoff-esque event.


The only real interest—and it was mild-- I had in The Darlings was wondering if Alger had meant to reference Peter Pan by naming her family the Darlings. Is it that the financial crisis is putting an end to living in Neverland? Deep.

I could have stopped reading The Darlings at any time and gone on to lead a full and happy life. So why didn't I? Blame it on the snow day. Coziness won over literary merit.

It’s been a long time since I read as big a snooze fest as The Darlings. The cover is attractive though.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was filled with side characters that had a lot of time spent on them. Yet Lilly Darling and her husband were basically put aside after the first 1/3 of the book. I wanted to like this book but it was just unbelievable. Too many characters that happened to know each other, crossing path at the right time. All those side characters, effectively dropped as soon as the big reveal occurred. This book was not for me.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down.

Just as the story was happening, it ended. I wanted to see the family's financial downturn and how they dealt w/that, but it just narrated the few days of the SEC investigation. So no schdenfraude for me!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few things.

1. The author seems to be trying to link 9/11 and the financial meltdown of 2008. Not cause-and-effect style, but spiritually, in a way. I didn't quite buy it, but it lent a little extra flavor to the story.

2. I am tired of stories about rich people in New York that do no more than describe the lives of rich people in New York. These novels pretend to cast a critical eye on all the wealth and luxury, but all they're really doing is chronicling the lifestyle, and the plot sometimes feels like an excuse to describe the lives of glamorous people. I don't need books for that -- I have reality TV.

3. There were a lot of missed opportunities here. We could have spent more time thinking about dilemmas of family loyalty, and whether you have a moral responsibility to be a whistleblower, and what happens after you betray the family or fail to blow the whistle. But mostly, the author wrote pages and pages of exposition, to set up the emotional import of all the questions she didn't fully explore.

4. Despite the fact that I didn't love it, I think this would be a good book group book. There's a lot to get people talking in here.

[Elsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alors que Thanksgiving va débuter, les turpitudes du monde de la finance frappe de plein fouet une famille travaillant dans la haute finance. Ce roman se concentre sur l'étude d'un microcosme, celui de la haute finance new-yorkaise, un petit entre-soi, qui s'effrite et se fendille, avec la crise financière. Cependant, tout cela reste assez lisse et poli, on a du mal à ressentir quelque chose pour les personnages qui sont insipides, et mettent vraiment du temps à entrer en scène. Une certaine étude sociologique pointe sous la description de ces pseudo-familles, qui ne se voit que peu (pension, boulot), mais qui font bloc. Le plus grand point positif de ce roman est de ne pas être trop mal traduit. Mais l'écriture assez détaillée gagnerait à être plus concise, car elle nuit à l'intrigue qui ne se développe que dans la dernière partie du roman. A la croisée entre le roman policier et l'étude de moeurs, on a un peu de mal à s'y accrocher.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally, I probably would not have picked this up, despite the lovely cover. When offered a review copy from Penguin, I figured why not, since I can be a bit narrow in my reading tastes these days (YA, YA, YA). Yet again, I am glad I did. The Darlings was a good read, even for one such as myself, who does not follow anything about the economy (more than my own bank account anyway).

The entirety of the story, with the exception of the epilogue, takes place within just one week. I love that Alger set it up this way, because it really drove home how quickly a situation can devolve to a snafu. On Monday, everything was good, and in a matter of days two companies were pretty much destroyed (or likely to be so).

Also, I want to give Alger props for managing to write sympathetic characters. I was definitely out to hate everyone in this book, because I can likely never (realistically) dream of having as much money as these guys would still have if the company bit it. I know life's not fair, but that does not mean I have to like it.

Actually, pretty much every character in here was at least a little bit likable. Certainly, by the end, there were some folks I was not a huge fan of, but I didn't hate anyone entirely (except maybe for Jane, who didn't get much screen time). I couldn't hate Carter because of how much he cared for his family, and because he apparently resembles Cary Grant. My favorite characters were definitely Paul and Merrill, who seem least messed up by the world they're living in. I would also really like to find out what happened to Marina.

The Darlings is a well-written story set in the economic landscape of post-9/11 New York City. Expect love, betrayal, and plot twists. Enjoy!

[Erin (Historical Fiction Reader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cristina Alger's debut The Darlings offers up an unquestionably intriguing idea, but for me, the execution left something to be desired. In fact my entire experience with this title can be summed up in a single word: ugh.

Make no mistake, Alger knows her material inside and out and deserves a lot of credit for manipulating her understanding of the economic crisis and legal knowledge into a work of fiction. Her obvious love for Manhattan and the lifestyle that city affords those privileged enough to live there is clearly evidenced within these pages. I also feel the premise she crafted for her story had loads of potential.

Unfortunately content is only half the battle. Successful authors are the ones who can establish a rapport with their readers and that is where this piece failed me. Try I might I couldn't connect with any part of the narrative and at the end of the day, that lack of empathy and the overabundance of filler content made this book very difficult for me to appreciate.

The endless parade of characters and superfluous background information associated with each often left me glassy eyed and, I'll be frank, the fact that most of these stereo-typically self-centered elitist socialites fade into the background as the story unfolds didn't help matters.

Most disappointing though was that I felt Alger failed to bridge the gap between the haves in her narrative and the have-nots who might read it. Her book represents a mindset and world few of us inhabit and even fewer of us understand and pretending otherwise only serves to alienate those of readership who find such indulgence foreign.

All told, this one wasn't for me and while I respect the effort Alger put forth in its creation, I would have a hard time recommending this title to others.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a former analyst at Goldman Sachs, this novel portrays the wealthy society and the financial shenanigans that brought about the crisis on Wall St. She does this very well, as I have to say that I really did not like any of these characters at all, except for Paul. He finds himself part of the family and working for his father in law and must figure out where his loyalties lie. A twist at the end, well at least I didn't expect it. The games the rich play, the pressures and the stress, all for the sake of money.

[Eliza Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this because it was featured on NYPL’s list of books to read if you’re excited about the Succession season 4 premiere. Fun!

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Darlings begins with the disappearance of a hedge fund manager. Once the rest of the world realizes he's gone, there will be hell to pay. The story of a Ponzi scheme that gets taken down is one we've heard. What makes The Darlings interesting is watching it play out within the course of one long weekend.

The book centers mostly on Paul Ross, married to Merrill Darling (of the titular family). They are a wealthy high-society family, still somewhat foreign to Paul who comes from a more normal background. After Paul's firm collapses in the beginnings of the financial meltdown he takes a job with his father-in-law, Carter Darling. But when suspicions of a Ponzi Scheme in one of the firm's major funds arises, Paul has to suddenly decide if he sticks with his family or strikes out to save his own skin.

There are a multitude of characters in the book, and it can be a bit confusing keeping them all straight. The story unfolds not just through Paul and Carter, but lawyers at the SEC, a magazine editor, a secretary, and others whose connections only come together as the case draws closer.

It is not a thriller, per se, but there's no way of knowing out front who is responsible and who will come out of it without an indictment. Watching the characters scheme and plan and make decisions is pretty fascinating.

Still, I felt a lot of the novel dwelt on the luxurious life of the Darling family, which feels unreal. It also makes it difficult to see Merrill straight. She comes from such luxury, she is a practically perfect character, she is the center point for Paul and Carter, but she can feel rather empty.

A quick read, and easily accessible even for those of us who have little financial knowledge.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was totally wooed by the cover of The Darlings - refined, cool New York at its very best.

The Darlings is described as a ‘sophisticated page-turner’ – a new genre perhaps? It could also be described as a financial thriller, although that doesn’t do much to sell the book, does it?! It’s much more glamorous than that.

From the first page, which is the scene of a suicide attempt from an unknown character, The Darlings reels you in. It’s fast-paced and each chapter title is a date and time over the span of the Thanksgiving weekend – it gives the reader a sense of urgency, as the events of the weekend quickly (and uncontrollably) unfold.

Alger leaves readers dangling on a number of plot points – who committed suicide? Who is he having an affair with? Is there a snitch? The answers are revealed gradually, and as they are, the broader implications become clear.

I really liked Alger’s use of detail – there was enough in there about New York, society and the world of finance, law and the media to set the scene without it feeling as if the author was ‘name-dropping’ or padding out scenes to give the story authenticity. In fact, it was so well done that those close to Alger, or those that have worked with her, might just feel a prickle of anxiety reading The Darlings – are any of the characters based on them?!

See my full review here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...

[Zen Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Darlings of New York -- a family of top-tier wealth and privilege -- prepare for their annual Thanksgiving gathering in the Hamptons. But this year, the holiday arrives under a cloud of dark discoveries involving a Ponzi scheme within their offices and it’s perpetrator’s suicide. This novel unfolds over the days that follow, revealing an intricate lacework of loyalties and maneuvers, both legal and illegal. The secrets and lies that the 99% believes always exist just a scratch away from the gilded surface are gradually revealed. The Darlings world is rendered clearly here, complete with calmly-taken-for-granted privileges mixed with constant edge-of-the-precipice living. Villains abound here, but this is a story of human beings, the ones who must bear up under the fallen sky and the ones who brought it down on their heads. The 1% will recognize themselves and their ilk here, although occasional lapses do stretch believability (surely the wife of the man who ran an enormous Ponzi scheme would never ever fly commercial, would she? Wouldn’t there be a private jet and pilot standing by to accommodate her every travel whim?). Nonetheless, this novel is filled with characters and events that keep you turning the pages to the almost-but-not-really-surprising end.

[Linda C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loose adaption of the Bernie Madoff debacle. Good story, very fast read, but ultimately somewhat blah. Author does a great job at creating the scene of New York/Wall Street/Hampton excess, but the characters were all a bit flat. More cliches, than people.

Also, the author is presented as being a Wall Street insider, but she made some errors that annoyed me. Not that it detracts from the story, and 99% of the readers won't even notice, but since she is supposed to be an insider, these were little things that she should have known better. As an example, she calls one of the fund managers "a great investor" as in "So and so is a great investor, but he..." NO ONE on the buy side calls a portfolio manager an investor. Investors are the people whose money the firm invests. You call the portfolio manager, the portfolio manager, or the P.M. You might say he/she has great performance, but you never say that he/she is a great investor. There were numerous little errors like that, and it seemed to be laziness on her part-- she likely thought that no one would know, so she took the easiest route.

Nice, fast summer read, but, in the end, not a lot of substance. Sounds a little like Bernie's pyramid, come to think of it...

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this book and another of her books, and I have to say I don’t know if I like them at all. The narrators are THE WORST. They just can’t handle dialog. Everyone has the same voice and every sentence ends with the same
inflection. Listening to her books is exhausting. If I ever read another one, I’ll be sure not to use audio, and actually read it because I hated listening to this book and hated listening to Girls Like Us.

The other thing I hated about this book was how very very fake the rich people’s lives seemed. It seemed like something Ms Alger read in a 1980s guide to how to be rich, then remembered as she was writing the book. The people themselves didn’t seem to be written realistically.

Also, how many people in the book had a father who died young or a father who abandoned them? That trope was used over and over again. I found myself rolling my eyes. A lot.

Not more than once, I felt myself glazing over as Ms
Alger went into way too much financial detail or told the reader how a company was named. Totally uninteresting to the average reader.

Finally, I can’t figure out why Lily and Adrian got their own chapter. It seemed totally unrelated to the test of the book.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://frenchspark.com/cristina-alger...

Pas des plus palpitants, il se laisse lire mais le début est très long, beaucoup de personnages donc on ne sait plus qui est qui et qui est en relation avec qui meme si ils ont tout un lien. Beaucoup de fautes de typo... Pas top... Ils auraient pu le relire avant de l'imprimer... Et puis le dénouement est rapidement bouclé, bâclé, on ne sait pas ce qui se passe pour certains personnages. L'affaire en elle même n'est couverte que sur 1/4 du livre (et je suis généreuse...), et honnêtement cela aurait dû être le contraire car il y a beaucoup de récit inutile au début. Apres heureusement qu'il y a un épilogue sinon on serait vraiment resté sur notre fin.
Le sommaire du livre décrit très mal l'histoire, on pense que tout va tourner autour de la décision compliquée de Paul de se couvrir ou de couvrir sa famille mais en fait ce passage dure juste quelques pages...
Enfin il se laisse lire, il n'est pas désagréable, mais vous ne trouverez pas une histoire à suspense et pleins de mystères et encore moins palpitante.

http://frenchspark.com/cristina-alger...

[Rozemarijn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't bad but it wasn't good.
It wasn't boring but it wasn't exiting.
It wasn't that clever but it wasn't that stupid.

Mostly the book consisted of this:
- Every 7 pages a totally unknown and mostly uninteresting person would 'tell' the story (focalise, as I came to know :)). It could be either a millionaire or an assistent. So much for building a bridge between the upper and low classes...
- So. Much. Brand. Dropping. Honestly, do you think I care how your stupid non important financial business is called? Ugh. (Maybe I'm not really the in the prefered audience since I'm not that into economics)
- 'Fillers'. Like complicated relationships, a lot of stereotypical things and really confusing interactions between financial businesses.

And end note: As I said, the story could be a really interesting and thrilling but it ended very weak. That's kind of a pity because it had the potential. It was an easy and fun read after so many French novels from the 19th era but do not really recommend it. Go read Perks.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a wonderful premise but I was disappointed by its execution. There were way too many characters and too much description of unnecessary people/situations. For example, what was the point of Nikos and his sister? I also thought that the whole book felt like exposition and we were waiting and waiting for action, but it was just more waiting and more description. Then by the end, we were expected to think all this drama happened and we were supposed to feel all betrayed, but I didn't feel anything. I think this book had so much more potential, sadly.