"Speak Softly, She can hear you" by Pam Lewis

Carole Mason and her best friend Naomi make an agreement to both lose their virginity before they graduate from the prestigious Spence School in New York City, in 1965. When they are in Vermont on a ski vacation, Naomi sets things up for Carole to meet with Eddie, a 26 year old actor and college drop-out. Carole gets what she wanted, having sex with Eddie, but never expected Rita Boudreau to enter the scene. Rita unexpectedly dies after having sex with Eddie.
He blames the result on Carole being overweight, the bed not having enough room for the three of them and Carole being drunk and not remembering what exactly happened. Carole being a typical, normally well-behaved, quiet teenager panics and leaves early from the ski trip in Vermont. Her life is never the same again.
Carole, an only child, is the love of her parents life. They had moved to the city from Ridgewood, New Jersey, seeking a better life. Their dream for their daughter is for her to attend Vassar. Things change for Carole once she is home from the ski trip. Carole used to tell her mother everything, now the lies come quickly and easily. Carole panics when Rita Boudreau's wallet shows up in her borrowed parka and even skips school once while trying to confront Eddie. Eddie won't go away, and tortures Carole by telling her about meeting her mother on the street. Eddie follows her to Vassar, finds her in California, and Vermont. Her mother dies of a heart attack. Her father tries to resolve their differences but Carole is still fearful of her secret, runs away.
Ten years later, Carole ends up once again in Vermont. She is there because of her friend Rachel, and husband Morgan. Carole meets the love of her life, Will Burbank, in her restaurant. Life seems normal until Naomi calls Carole and leaves a message saying she is moving to Vermont. Carole goes to a Spence reunion trying to convince Naomi to stay far away. Once Naomi pushes her way into Carole's circle of friends, Eddie shows up. Carole finally tells Will what happened to her so many years ago. Will tells her that she was not the one responsible. Eddie dies but not before inflicting physical pain on Carole. However the emotional pain was far worse for her. She and Will survive, Naomi does not. In the end, Carole manages to reconnect with her father.
Sweeping across decades, moving from New York to Vermont to California and back again, Lewis tells an utterly gripping, psychologically nuanced tale of friendship between two very different women, of the life-changing burden of a secret, the lies we tell others to save ourselves, and the lies we tell ourselves when the truth is too painful to accept.
When I first started reading this book I wasn't too interested. The writing had kept throwing me off with that I thought would be simple mistakes to catch. The main thing that bothered me was the way Lewis failed to show when time had passed. I quickly found out that the reason for these mistakes were due to the fact that Speak Softly is Pam Lewis' first novel. Before this book she has done a few short stories that were published in newspapers, but no paperback books.
Lewis would sometimes write things out of order; first showing Carole and Naomi carrying out their plans then later showing how they met. It made for some confusing reading at times, due to how she didn't always show time passing, but as the book went along she got better at showing just what happened when and the confusion was gone. The effect of the out-of-order-writing made for a very interesting read. Just when you question why Carole would do such a thing, Lewis shows you a flashback that explains the whole reasoning behind it.
The dialogue felt real for their respective characters and the time periods, so there was nothing to throw me off there. In fact, the dialogue is what saved a lot of 'scenes' where I was originally confused engrossing me so far into what was happening I didn't care that she forgot to tell us time had passed.
The climax and resolution to the story were fantastically done. I was actually blown away. All of a sudden this really powerful writer appeared, as if she had written the beginning of the story timidly, doubtful, only to have it replaced with pure confidence at the end. I was so excited during the later half of the book that I couldn't put it down, particularly during the last 4 or so chapters. She actually had my heart pounding for Carole, panicking or angering along side her. If only she had written like that from the beginning then this book would get five stars!