Have You Met Nora? Nicole Blades

Published: Kensington
Date: 31st October 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 320
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
                

She’s blossomed from wealthy surgeon’s beautiful daughter to elegant socialite to being the top fashion stylist in the country. And Nora Mackenzie is only days away from marrying into one of New York’s richest, most powerful families. But her fairy tale rise is rooted in an incredible deception—one scandal away from turning her perfect world to ashes . . .

What no one knows is that Nora is the biracial daughter of a Caribbean woman and a long-gone white father. Adopted—and abused—by her mother’s employer, then sent to an exclusive boarding school to buy her silence, Nora found that “passing” as a white woman could give her everything she never had. Every golden opportunity she seized and every deception she worked kept that powerless, forgotten girl forever in the past.

Now, an ex-classmate who Nora betrayed many years ago has returned to her life to even the score. She’s a woman who won’t be bought off, reasoned against, or pleaded with. Her machinations are turning Nora’s privilege into one gilded trap after another. Running out of choices, Nora must decide how far she will go to protect a lie or give up and finally face the truth.

I was drawn to reading this book by the synopsis and the cover and I kept reading because I wanted to see how Nora was going to deal with the big issues present in her life.

It's a story of great injustice, revenge, fear and lies. Nora has had many things happen to her that she wants to keep hidden. Does she risk telling the truth or does she hide the truth in case it ruins her? I felt for her, but really couldn't go along with her choices.    If you have ever hesitated over telling someone something about yourself for fear of what they will think of you, then you will be able to empathise with Nora.   Meet Nora - an extremely flawed character. 

Personally I wanted more from her and for her. Certainly a thought provoking book that will have you talking if you read it. 

What Others Say about Have You Met Nora?

“Nicole Blades has created a heroine both honorable and deceptive, both vulnerable and powerful, a heroine whose choices are at times shocking but arguably necessary. It is near impossible not to cheer Nora Mackenzie’s ultimate triumph over a childhood of cruelty and loss, even if that terrible past compels her to extreme behavior in order to achieve a life of security and love.” —Holly Chamberlin, author of The Season of Us

  
“If Gillian Flynn wrote a 21st Century take on Imitation of Life, it would be this book. A fascinating page-turner, Have You Met Nora? is smart, funny, and wholly unexpected.” 
—Attica Locke, author of Pleasantville, producer and writer for Fox TV’s Empire
  
“Have You Met Nora? is stunning, riveting, and positively unpredictable. This is a deft and searing commentary on identity and race. Nicole Blades has written a book that feels effortless to read and yet pulls no punches, offering a point of view that is piercing and uncompromising. You will be thinking about this book long after it’s over.” 
—Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo