The Perfect Read this Week - The Opportunist 

The makings for your perfect evening are right here. 

A late-in-the-game threat to the inheritance due to a set of siblings is the driving force of the thrilling novel The Opportunist by Elyse Friedman. When Ed Shropshire, filthy rich and pushing 80, announces his plan to marry his twenty-something nurse, Kelly, his two sons step in, ready to connive their way back to the front of the gravy train. However, they can’t do it without the help of their sister, Alana. 

Remarkably less greedy and more scrupulous, she arrives at the family’s coastal Vancouver estate and immediately second-guesses their plan, which is rooted in a whole other level of secrets and lies. As the wedding gets closer and alliances shift, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat every step of the way.

The Opportunist (Original)

by Elyse Friedman

When Alana Shropshire's seventy-six-year-old father, Ed, starts dating Kelly, his twenty-eight-year-old nurse, a flurry of messages arrive from Alana's brothers, urging her to help "protect Dad" from the young interloper. Alana knows that what Teddy and Martin really want to protect is their father's fortune, and she tells them she couldn't care less about the May-December romance. Long estranged from her privileged family, Alana, a hardworking single mom, has more important things to worry about.

But when Ed and Kelly's wedding is announced, Teddy and Martin kick into hyperdrive and persuade Alana to fly to their father's West Coast island retreat to perform one simple task in their plan to make the gold digger go away. Kelly, however, proves a lot more wily than expected, and Alana becomes entangled in an increasingly dangerous scheme full of secrets and surprises. Just how far will her siblings go to retain control?

Smart, entertaining and brimming with shocking twists and turns, The Opportunist is both a thrill ride of a story and a razor-sharp view of who wields power in the world.

Enjoy these perfect pairings while you read  The Opportunist 

A martini for true allies  From The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World's Greatest Drink, with Recipes by Robert Simonson The martinis don’t stop flowing in The Opportunist, and while we love the classic, this spin — so appropriately named the “Allies Cocktail” — brings an added element of complexity. Meet kümmel, a liqueur that dreamily tastes a little bit of caraway and cumin. In this mix, it’s a stunner. The name of the cocktail refers to World War I allies England, France, and Russia, but we’re tipping our hats to the ever-shifting alliances in the novel. The recipe comes from The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World's Greatest Drink, with Recipes by Robert Simonson — a book filled with enough cocktail recipes to keep all the Shropshire kids and their intimate circle tipsy for well beyond a weekend.

INGREDIENTS 1 ounce dry gin   1 ounce dry vermouth   2 dashes kümmel

Directions Combine the ingredients in a mixing glass filled with ice and stir until chilled, about 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Reprinted with permission from The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World’s Greatest Drink, with Recipes by Robert Simonson, copyright © 2019. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photography copyright: Lizzie Munro © 2019

Baked Eggplant and Tomatoes with Chickpeas  From The Vegan Week: Meal Prep Recipes to Feed Your Future Self [A Cookbook]  by Gena Hamshaw Kelly, the spry and fit young nurse who woos Ed toward the altar, also woos him toward a healthier lifestyle by insisting they follow a vegan diet. Does Ed like it? Not really. But yet, he acquiesces. Lucky for him, this isn’t your grandfather’s vegan main dish, with the nuttiness of the roasted eggplant alongside the zing of the spices and vinegar. We like it best over couscous but you should follow your own heart.

Reprinted with permission from The Vegan Week by Gena Hamshaw, copyright (c) 2022. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Photographs copyright © Ashley McLaughlin

More from the Author on sibling dynamics 

What is it about sibling relationships and dynamics that makes them the perfect foundation for fabulous stories? That’s exactly what author Elyse Friedman addressed oh-so-thoughtfully when we asked for her thoughts. Read on for why she just can’t seem to get enough of writing about brothers, sisters, and the world in which they exist. 

“A friend of mine recently noticed a pattern in some of my novels. In my first book, THEN AGAIN, I wrote about a man who buys the suburban home in which he grew up, retro fits it to look exactly like it had in the 1970s, and then invites his sisters to a family reunion where he’s hired actors to play their long-deceased parents. In the novel I’m currently writing, I have two half-sisters involved in a love triangle with a very duplicitous and dangerous man. In my recently published novel, THE OPPORTUNIST, three siblings conspire to get rid of their father’s 'gold-digger girlfriend, in order to secure their very juicy inheritance.  'It seems, 'my friend pointed out, ‘you love writing about siblings.’ And it’s true, I do. And I think I know why: The dynamic between brothers and sisters is very interesting and unique.”