I really enjoy novels that weave together seemingly unrelated plots, that eventually come together. (Beautiful Ruins is a favorite) Yet the 'reveal' in The Engagements of how each main character's story related to the others took WAY too long for me to care. And I really only empathized with one story line (Evelyn's) and the very real story Mary Frances Gerety who coined the tag line "A Diamond is Forever" during her years at Ayer advertising. The other main characters were either pissing away their lives or annoyingly self-righteous.