Ethan and Jorie a perfect beautiful couple, have been married for 13 years, and are still very much in love. Ethan is a pillar of the community, but 13 years ago he committed a brutal rape and murder. A young girl's phone call exposes him, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them - as nothing could ever be the same for that other young girl who was raped all those years ago, or her family. [return][return]Very enjoyable, despite the subject matter. The language she uses is very evocative, and the effect the shattering news has on the people involved and the wider community is stunning

Ethan and Jorie are the perfect couple. From the outside looking in they have everything. Ethan Ford. Let us start with him. What's not to love about Ethan? He's a first-rate carpenter, a volunteer fireman who has saved many people from various burning buildings, an excellent little league coach, he's extremely good looking, generous and kind, married to Jorie and father to sixth grader, Collie. This is a tight knot community in Massachusetts. Everyone knows everyone. Jorie, Charlotte, Trisha, Mark, Barney and Dave all went to high school together. Ethan is the odd man out. That's the way he likes it.
Blue Diary bounces from third person perspective to the first person narrative of Kat, Collie Ford's best friend. They will share devastation in common. Kat lost her father to suicide, Collie will lose his to incarceration. This is a story about perception.
Interestingly, everyone seems to be pining for someone else. Jorie's best friend, Charlotte, has a deep crush on Ethan (but then again, who doesn't?). Barney has the hots for Charlotte. Confessional: I didn't like many of the characters so I had a hard time rooting for anyone.
As an aside, Hoffman likes to write in color so when I started reading Blue Diary I started to take note of everything described as blue: blue air, brilliant and blue, blue eyes, shimmering blue, blue ice, blue shadows (2), blue images, blue ponds, blue shapes, blue jays (several), blue blur, blue, blue skies, still blue, pinched and blue, blue flickering, Blue tint, blue silk, written in blue, China blue, blue frock, inkberry blue, blue skies, blue circles, blue dress, blue dusk, blue binding, blueberry, blue leatherette, wash blue, bluer still, frozen and blue, sweet blue, bluebirds, blue diary, milky blue, now blue, and the variations of blue, indigo and cobalt. ( )

Read a while back so don't remember details, only that I liked it a lot.

Second reading:

Ethan Ford is the perfect husband, the perfect fireman, the perfect neighbor. In a little town in New England, he has risked his life more than once to save others, as a volunteer fireman. He steps up to help others in need. He works as a handyman and builder and has many happy clients.

Ethan arrived in Jorie's life over 13 years ago and the two are still deeply in love. They both feel so lucky to have found the other.

And then the bottom drops out of their lives. Ethan is arrested for something he did many years ago in another state.

Ethan contends that the person he is now is not the person he was then. The town splits into two: 1) those who consider who Ethan is now and determine that he made a mistake in his youth, and should be forgiven; and 2) those who think he's a criminal and should pay.

Jorie is on the fence. Who is Ethan really? Who has he been all these years? Their son Colin comes down on the anti-Ethan side immediately and wants nothing to do with him. But Jorie is struggling.

Much of the story is seen through the eyes of the next-door neighbor, Katya. Katya is a pre-teen with a sharp eye and keen mind. She may see some things more clearly than any of the adults around her.

*****Spoiler alert*******Discussion for after you've read it*****

The blue diary is a diary owned by the young teen murdered by Ethan all those years ago. After Jorie has the opportunity to see this diary and to think about this girl and what happened to her, she makes a decision about where to go from here.

I felt that ultimately Jorie has determined that Ethan has certainly lived the life of a saint while with her, but he is fundamentally still the person who murdered a young girl. From what I read of Ethan's behavior while in jail I have to agree with her.

I did wonder how anyone could change course so completely in a blink of an eye. Perhaps he didn't change that much? ( )

Romance, love, forgiveness, murder, uncertainty, deceit.....all wrapped up in a magical way as only Alice Hoffman can do! This is an earlier book from 2001, before cell phones and google entered our lives so fully, but I didn't miss it in this deeply moving story. ( )

Ethan and Jorie Ford have a wonderful marriage. Ethan is a fireman and works in construction and he seems to be the perfect husband and the model citizen until one day a secret from his past changes their lives forever.

This book is all about how one's life can change in a "minute". It is about how things are not always what they seem to be. And it is about keeping secrets and about the consequences of lies.

The plot resolution is not very convincing. And the pace of the novel is distractedly slow. Unfortunately, the blue diary is introduced late in the story although it is an important catalyst for Jorie's decisions at the end of the book. Ultimately, I just didn’t feel a connection to the characters or the story.
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