Hope in a Jar    by Beth Harbison Order:  USA  Can St. Martin's, 2010 (2010) Hardcover, CD, e-Book Read an Excerpt     Reviewed by Joan Burton Teenagers Alli Denty and Olivia Pelham are the best of friends. Alli is the pretty one and Olivia is the smart one. Alli's other good friend Noah spends a lot of time with her. Olivia insists Noah has feelings for Alli but Alli denies it. Alli loves cosmetics and is always giving Olivia makeovers. Alli believes the cure for anything is inside a cosmetic jar. One day Alli's world shifts when Olivia and her mother pack up and move suddenly - their friendship is over. Twenty years later Alli finds herself unhappy and single. She has just found her live in boyfriend between the sheets with another woman. Pushing forty she feels overweight and insecure. Noah insists that Alli should attend their twentieth high school reunion, but Alli has found out Olivia will be attending. She cannot face a confrontation after all these years. But after much soul searching Alli consents to going to the reunion. Olivia is a successful magazine editor in New York City. She is beautiful and confident, has money, and an apartment in Manhattan. She appears to have it all, but she is very lonely. For years she has been running from a secret that changed her life and robbed her of her innocence. Now with the reunion looming she is nervous to see Alli after all this time. Alli and Olivia begin to take the first steps on rebuilding their friendship when they finally come fact to face at the reunion. Both women are shocked to see Noah with Vicki, a mean spirited person with an agenda. Naive to her intentions, Alli and Olivia come together to show Noah that true friends help each other. Hope in a Jar is a heartwarming story of friendship. The chapters alternate from the present to the past high school days. Each chapter begins with a quote from a commercial that boomers can identify. In the end it all comes down to hope. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Contemporary books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews