If you like romance series with twists and turns, then you’ll love the Pam of Babylon Series. When Jack has a heart attack on the train from Manhattan, Pam and Jack’s two lovers discover secrets and lies, and each other,in this contemporary romance with a touch of noir. In a tale of marriage and betrayal, Pam’s friendships and sisterly love are stretched to the limit. At what point does a … limit. At what point does a relationship cross over from abuse to choice? And does forgiveness always come with exceptions?
2016 Honorable Mention Reader’s Favorite Book Awards
Pam of Babylon – Book #1 in the Best Selling Series!
188 Five Star Reviews!
The first of fourteen novels and short stories, sign up on the author’s website for your first FREE short story, First Sight: When Pam Met Jack.
Pam’s Adventures in Babylon Coming Fall 2016
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Suzanne Jenkins is on my auto-buy list!
When a book starts from a seemingly perfect place for the character, you know he is not going to stay there long… So when Jack Smith is looking at the face of Sandra, his mistress, thinking “I am the luckiest man alive,” his luck is at its end. Not only would Marie, his wife’s sister, find out about his affair, but he would to live long enough to try to handle the scandal with Pam, his meek, trusting wife.
While he is cheating on her, Pam waits excitedly for his return. “She had the week to prepare for his homecoming… she tried to make it an oasis for him.” Despite her trust in Jack, she knows intuitively that things between them are not quite right. “There was a tiny, itsy bit of doubt, a niggling worry, an insecurity in the back of her mind. He was disconnected from her.”
When she gets a call from the hospital that Jack has died from a heart attack, Pam goes to pieces and then, gradually, reassembles them, finding a new strength in herself. She now learns the truth about him and a few of the women with whom he betrayed her. Sandra, too, goes through grief: “Her life had changed overnight.”
This book is about looking forward to restart life already, even in the presence of death. It is about healing, part of which comes from forgiveness. I know this sounds strange to some readers, who find Pam’s behavior ’too unreal.” Apparently it is easier and perhaps more natural for many of us to succumb to vengefulness. At the same time, this is exactly why this book is so fascinating. It offers a different possibility, a more hopeful one. “There was something about cleaning up, washing everything, that spoke of new beginnings.”
The author, Suzanne Jenkins, stated that she wrote the character as the opposite of herself. “I am at the opposite end of the spectrum of reactions….I wouldn’t be forgiving and embracing.” Yet I feel that by the end of the story Pam inhabits her to such a degree that her words come straight from the heart, gut, and mind.
Five stars.
The title of this drew me in, and the twisting and turning tale makes me buy the other books in the series. This is a 16 book series–plus novellas and short stories–but I dare you to not keep reading.
Although I loved Pam of Babylon and really enjoyed listening, at times I wanted to smack Pam.
The unexpected is abundant. The story unfolds with Pam, the wife, dealing and exchanging one set of painful details with another.
Jack is the star in the lives of the women that loved him. His mother living with her regret for hurting her son. His Wife, his sister in law with a strange obsession for her brother in law. And, then his mistress.
While an affair alone should be a tell-tell sign of a person’s character, Jack does not really come off as a complete jerk, at the start anyway. Not by listening to those that loved him tell their side of knowing him. To hear them tell it, he was a great guy!
The most frustrating thing for me was the compassion that Pam had for Jack’s mistress, a perfect stranger. Then when her sister tells her tale, Pam is brutal and the complete opposite of being compassionate.
The author Suzanne Jenkins writes with a comfortable feel and a lot of realism. However, the contents are startling. At moments I was down right shocked. Just when I was sure I knew where the story was going, details were revealed that changed everything about how I saw the story and how the women in Jack’s life see him.
There is a pull that kept me listening. That pull developed into an anger, disgust even with all of these characters really. Especially with Jack. He really lived the life of a monster and did some horrible things that stayed long after he was gone. Bits and pieces are revealed gradually. Then as everything unfolds, I even said out loud “WHAT? WHAT? Did I just hear what I heard?” The story is really good. Really good! It is easy listening. There are so many secrets, none of which are expected.
The Narrator, Marnye Young, is a multi award-winning narrator for NY Times, WSJ and USA Today Bestselling Authors. The voice over creates a warm and cozy place to settle in. The story goes way beyond warm and cozy though. When Marnye switches from character to character, the personalities of the each character are made clear. For the most part, the characters are women but of different ages. Maryne Young does a great job expressing what each might sound like and displays their level of emotion very well. The story is interesting and the voice telling it has clarity, variety and flare.
I highly recommend this audible, especially if listening is your favorite way to get your books. This one is a wonderful, relaxing listen. It is a great fit for those that enjoy stories based on realism, complicated relationships, chic-lit, women’s literature. A drama with suspense.
Pam of Babylon is for a mature audience with adult language, adult situations and some adult imagery.
I’ve had this book in my library for quite a while, but when I was given the opportunity to listen to the audio version, I jumped at the chance.
Jack dies on the train, on his way home to his wife, who lived full time in Babylon. Jack had just left his mistress in NYC. He lived there during the week to lessen his commute to work.
It turns out that Jack had many secrets and his wife Pam discovers that he had been sleeping with not one, but two women, and maybe more.
This is a great story about self discovery and the interactions between the wife, two lovers, and two mothers. Fascinating and I’m ready for the next book in the series. It’s a great thing that there are 23 more books waiting.
The author provided me with a copy of the audio book. This is my honest review.
Pam of Babylon, my first enjoyable read from author Suzanne Jenkins. I originally got this book back in August of 2013 & never got around to reading it until I received a free Audible copy yesterday. I even own 80 of her books yet I’d never read one. Well-written with intriguing characters and a captivating, intricately woven storyline that makes you want to continue reading the 24 book series. “I received a free Audible copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.” The gifting of this book did not affect my opinion of it. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author and look forward to the next book in the series, (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
Quite unusual; it was a good and interesting book.
Jack is having an affair. On the train home, he has a heart attack. This brings his wife (Pam), and his lover and one more woman together to learn about who Jack was and thus learning who they really are.
This book was based on a very big and interesting conundrum. The author slowly and methodically built quite a bit of suspense which could have moved along a littler faster (I would scream if they made one more cup of tea!) But after painstakingly building all this great suspense and drama through 4,400 pages (on my Kindle), the author just wham-bam wrapped everything up in a couple of the last pages with a lead in to another book. It could be considered a stand alone book, but one with a short, almost uneventful ending.
I read the whole series one after the other, simply could not stop. Beware, this saga is addictive.
I like this series very much, I am currently reading #6 . This is definitely worth 5 stars, but there are some issues, at least for me. These books could use a lot of proofreading and editing. Grammar and typos are big issues, there are extra words in many sentences that are out of place, and there are some characters with their names spelled differently. Maryanne is sometimes Marianne or Anne with and without an “e”. There are more however, I love this series so much I am willing to overlook these issues which is most unusual for me.
Once again Suzanne Jenkins books kept me turning the pages, I am on the 2nd book in the series already.
This series reads like a good soap opera! I have enjoyed Pam’s journey – all 18 books so far!!! This is a fast-paced, exciting series with constant shocks and surprises! The story unfolds with the intimate and shocking discovery of the secret life of a deceased husband. It then highlights the life of his widow, who maintains her wealthy status in her beach front home, where many more surprises are brought to light by her husband’s actions, and where her life becomes a roller coaster of memories, emotions, dramas, conflicts, betrayals, mistakes, triumphs, tragedies, romances…. If you enjoy a smartly written, sexy, soap opera-like saga, with enough suspense to want the pages to keep flowing with family drama – and they do, you will love this entire series! I did! All 18 books! And I hope there will be more!!!
It was different and interesting.
It was different. Story was unique and a very strong lead character. It ended well and then I saw there were several more books to the series. I want to read those as well to see how the story progresses.
I love this book. It’s part of a 17part series and I’m on Book 13.
This was a real page turner, really enjoyed it.
Very well written. An original story line. A lot of twists to the story line.
Not my type of book.
I read the whole series, because I wanted to see how it ended. The typos, grammatical errors, and punctuation errors, made it very difficult to read. The story line became ridiculous. The repetitive sentences and mistakes of the timeline made me crazy!
I enjoyed the characters and the beginning of the series. It became very sick and twisted. It also started to become asinine! Who is the editor of these books? The author should be ashamed of her work.