The Women of Harrington Hall: A Novel

by J. Alec Keaton

The women who lived in Harrington Hall might have been any other coeds at a prominent university--and most of them did follow the typical pattern, attending classes, gathering at social functions, making new friends, and relishing the freedom of living away from home.

For others, however, the college experience was not at all what they anticipated it would be.

J. Alec Keaton's The Women of Harrington Hall is filled with happiness and heartache, poignancy and punch. Harrington Hall's women, genuine and true, are seemingly ordinary college coeds--you might say, ''I knew someone like that''--but the twists and turns in each woman's journey are anything but ordinary. And the telling of their tale will keep you riveted and wanting more.

500 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2015

About the author

J. Alec Keaton is the pen name of Andrew Y. Maeda, O.D., a health care professional, who resides in Hawaii with his family. He is semi-retired and enjoys playing golf, woodworking and writing in his spare time. The Women of Harrington Hall is his second novel. His first novel, When Love Never Ends, was published in October of 2013.

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this quickly, but I found it to be over-the-top and unrealistic. While I don't doubt college women face some of the issues faced by these women, to have the entire batch of main characters facing issues ranging from date rape resulting in death to getting caught up in a high class escort service to having an unplanned pregnancy that turns out to be a pregnancy with your previously unknown biological brother was really pushing it. There were also parts of the novel that seemed like at some point they would have some meaning, but it the meaning got cut in the editing process. For example, there were two mentions of two different people parking in spots reserved as handicapped spots. Why? Certainly, this is a bad thing, but what was the point of including this? It didn't advance the story. And then there was an issue of the siblings being told to get a blood test before they got married, but then finding out a blood test wasn't required. I guess it was supposed to be a missed opportunity to learn the truth, but it was a plot point that seemed to be emphasized that never advanced the story in any way. I couldn't relate to any of the characters and, ultimately, this made the book unappealing to me.