Firefly Lane

Hannah (On Mystic Lake) goes a little too far into Lifetime movie territory in her latest, an epic exploration of the complicated terrain between best friends—one who chooses marriage and motherhood while the other opts for career and celebrity. The adventures of poor, ambitious Tully Hart and middle-class romantic Kate Mularkey begin in the 1970s, but don’t really get moving until about halfway into the book, when Tully, who claws her way to the heights of broadcast journalism, discovers it’s lonely at the top, and Katie, a stay-at-home Seattle housewife, forgets what it’s like to be a rebellious teen. What holds the overlong narrative together is the appealing nature of Tully and Katie’s devotion to one another even as they are repeatedly tested by jealousy and ambition. Katie’s husband, Johnny, is smitten with Tully, and Tully, who is abandoned by her own booze-and-drug-addled mother, relishes the adoration from Katie’s daughter, Marah. Hannah takes the easy way out with an over-the-top tear-jerker ending, though her upbeat message of the power of friendship and family will, for some readers, trump even the most contrived plot twists. (Feb.)