Maggie
This one rang true for me. It's touching, insightful, and clear-headed about what being 22 feels like and creates an authentic protagonist who is trying to find her way into adulthood. I'm a sucker for a story of a struggling writer, a girl who is trying to figure out how to relate to men, a student grappling with friendships (how they come, how they go) and a daughter coming to terms with her family story. This author obviously spent time diving deep into the human psyche - all the characters are well thought out and unique. Bravo!
A masterful, lyrical novel set in rural Wisconsin, Still True tells a simple story of complex characters whose lives interweave in poignant, engaging ways. Jack and Lib have been married thirty years and are still passionately in love, though each maintains a separate home miles apart. Claire, Dan, and their boy Charlie are new residents of the small town and Claire is suffocating in a marriage that has sapped her spark for life, as she turns increasingly to alcohol to shut down the voices inside her head telling her there is more to life than this. And then the inevitable stranger comes to town in the form of Matt, Lib's son, whom she abandoned forty years before and has hidden from Jack all this time.
I gave myself the luxury of reading only a few chapters of this wonderful book a night, hoping this story would never end but just go on spooling out, filling my thoughts, touching my emotions, feeding me bit by bit the saga of these endearing, enduring people who came to mean so much to me. Very little “happens” in the sense of dramatic action scenes, yet in the way of great literature, everything does—jealousy, hurt, joy, connection, comfort, rage, and ultimately forgiveness.
If you're a reader who's tired of characters who come off as caricatures, plots too convoluted to ring true, and stories that veer away from exploring genuine human emotions in favor of off-the-cuff superficial fluff, this is the book for you. And if you're a fan of Larry Watson, William Kent Krueger, and loved Chris Whitaker's We Begin at the End, this belongs on your TBR list.
Merged review:
A masterful, lyrical novel set in rural Wisconsin, Still True tells a simple story of complex characters whose lives interweave in poignant, engaging ways. Jack and Lib have been married thirty years and are still passionately in love, though each maintains a separate home miles apart. Claire, Dan, and their boy Charlie are new residents of the small town and Claire is suffocating in a marriage that has sapped her spark for life, as she turns increasingly to alcohol to shut down the voices inside her head telling her there is more to life than this. And then the inevitable stranger comes to town in the form of Matt, Lib's son, whom she abandoned forty years before and has hidden from Jack all this time.
I gave myself the luxury of reading only a few chapters of this wonderful book a night, hoping this story would never end but just go on spooling out, filling my thoughts, touching my emotions, feeding me bit by bit the saga of these endearing, enduring people who came to mean so much to me. In a sense, very little happens in the sense of dramatic action scenes, yet in the way of great literature, everything does—jealousy, hurt, joy, connection, comfort, rage, connection, and ultimately forgiveness.
If you're a reader who's tired of characters who come off as caricatures, plots too convoluted to ring true, and stories that veer away from exploring genuine human emotions in favor of off-the-cuff superficial fluff, this is not the book for you. But if you're a fan of Larry Watson, William Kent Krueger, and loved Chris Whitaker's We Begin at the End, this belongs on your TBR list.
Some new idas and lots of examples. I'm sure I'll be able to use his pointers in my new novel.
Lucy Barton, a well-loved character of other Elizabeth Strout novels, returns to share her experiences during lockdown as she travels from her apartment in New York and its memories of her deceased husband to the coastal regions of Maine with her first husband and now aged friend William. As the two of them adjust not only to living with each other again, but the reality of a world-wide pandemic, we're treated to Strout's sparse, evocative prose. There are appearances by people we've grown to love – Lucy's daughters, old friends, even Olive Ketteridge has a cameo as Lucy shares thoughts, memories, and conversations and grapples with her new reality. If you're a fan of Strout's authentic, timely writing style, this one will not disappoint. It looks at the once-in-a-lifetime COVID experience with honesty, introspective and humility.
My thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
strong legal thriller with the added bonus of a loving and challenging family story woven in. Love these characters and hope to see them back in future novels.
Kept me engaged the whole time - the two young characters who hatched the idea were just trying to be artists, connect with each other on a deeper level, and have fun during summer vacation. A great satirical look at the power of viral gossip even before the internet of today and how an artistic endeavor, once out there, takes on a life of its own. Short read with Wilson's trademark sense of humor.
A lovely, uplifting book about coming to terms with grief. If you're looking for a novel that offers hope instead of despair, yet deals realistically with the world we live in, this is a five-star recommendation for you.
This fast-paced psychological thriller kept my attention from page one. Two sisters, estranged for many years, are in a near-fatal car crash in the beginning pages which leaves Rosie, the younger one, in a coma. When she wakes up, against all evidence, she insists her sibling Lillian is an imposter. You'll root for Lillian as she relentlessly attempts to ferret out the secrets behind the accident as well as the truths Rosie is hiding from her as Godfrey takes you on a roller-coaster ride with twists and turns along the way that will keep you riveted.
Great narrative voice - if you love old PI Noir, this is the book for you. Very distinctive writing style-you'll either love it or hate it. I was a tad disappointed at the end, but this is one author I've got on my radar now. Strong clear voice that was a joy to read
Read it in one day. Enjoyable and fast paced. Hope this is the beginning of a new series. A few of the action sequences seemed like someone 60 years old could not have done them, but that's a small quibble. Loved the intricate and unusual ways they found to kill their enemies.
A debut legal thriller, Mystic Wind is set in the 1980's in Boston. It's the story of Jack Marino, former hot-shot prosecutor with the DA's office, now working for his rich wife's father at a tony law firm and wondering whether he hasn't sold out. Suddenly he's thrust back into criminal law, defending a man accused of a cold-blooded murder with the just-instituted death penalty on the table. The fast-paced plot takes Jack back to the Mystic housing projects where he grew up and reunites him with his estranged brother and the woman he left behind as he struggles to win justice for his client despite the political machinations unfolding in the looming gubernatorial race and the prejudice of a sitting judge. While some of the courtroom scenes dragged a bit, in general the pace was quick with short chapters moving the action along and a central character who grew into an honorable crusader for justice worthy of what looks to be an ongoing series.
My thanks to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
This exquisitely written novel touched me in so many ways. It tells the story of Catherine, a hard-working photographer who spontaneously decides to pay her way to Iceland to complete an assignment for one of her commercial clients. She'll interview a glass-blowing artist based there, then travel alone through the countryside, taking in the sights and sounds of the “Land of Fire and Ice” with its thermal lagoons, ice caves, and other-worldly Northern Lights.
Little does she realize her whole life is about to change as she's challenged by not only the beauty of her surroundings but by Mack, the enigmatic glass artist she meets and falls in love with. Back home, her adult children get into scrapes and turn to her for help, but for once, she doesn't leap to save them but instead counsels them about how to solve their own problems. As her holiday stretches and her relationship with Mack deepens, aspects of herself she'd buried rise to the surface and she finds herself becoming both vulnerable and fascinated to realize how her life might be different.
Part women's fiction, part romance, part travelogue, The Color of Ice, with its lyrical prose and its riveting story line, will hold you in its thrall from the first page to its final revelation.
A devastating story of grief and one women's journey to carving out a path to connectedness through the fulcrum of loss, challenge, and acceptance. I loved the sense of place - as Elsa navigated living “off the grid” in my home state of Wisconsin and the challenges of weather, homesteading, raising two children alone, and discovering the serenity, beauty, and solidarity with nature. Her struggles rang true, from the initial challenge, through her fierce (some might say stubborn) desire to handle things on her own, to her final acceptance of her found family, there was not one moment when the emotions didn't ring true. And her daughter Hester was a treasure. Children are more sensitive to nuance and emotions than we give them credit for and Hester is a true example of how sincere and raw our childhood experiences can be.
A charming tale told in dual timelines and centered around Jewish matchmaking with a touch of magical realism thrown into the mix. Sarah, a Jewish immigrant living in the 1920's on New York's Lower East Side, has a talent for telling when two people are soulmates. She offers her services for free, challenging the male elders in her community who charge for this service. Then it's fast forward to New York in the 1990's and the perspective of Abby, an ambitious divorce lawyer, who seems to have inherited her grandmother's matchmaker gene, making her work with warring spouses that much more challenging. This heart-warming tale is a nice blend of history, romance, and family ties, with female characters that are well-written and relatable and two strong women at its core who you'll root for and embrace even with all their foibles. Perfect for those days when you want to curl up in front of a roaring fire and get lost in a treasure of a novel.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
I did enjoy the writing on this one - a varied cast of characters who interested me, both the “aristocratic” guests, the down-to-earth family running the hotel, and the behind-the-scenes servants whose lives were as rich as any of them (although it was sometimes hard to keep them straight due to the sheer numbers.) The locale was intriguing plus I'm a sucker for the time period but for me, it was hard to see what the actual point of the narrative was meant to be. Life went on, things happened, relationships ebbed and flowed, and suddenly, the book was over. I see this is being turned into a long-form drama series and maybe that's the point - this is the first part of what will be a continuing saga. But if so, I think that could have been more clearly explained and a stronger story told in this first part..
You'll swear you're reading a mystery from the Golden Age - the tone, the voice, the situation (a locked room murder), the characters. Everything was perfectly done - a quick read but totally enjoyable.
Excellent story - well written; lyrical phrasing but not at the expense of story which moved at a good pace and even though it switched back and forth in time and place, I was never confused. For those of you who like mysteries but also demand the story be well-written with thoughtful characterizations and true human emotions, this book is for you. Sleeper hit.
A portrait of a truly dysfunctional family, starting with the patriach Ray Hanrahan, a visual artist past his prime and a total narcissist who, nevertheless, has bullied and manipulated his entire family (wife, children, ex-wife) into cowering beneath his thumb. The action takes place over a single weekend and is based in England but it's story could be replicated anywhere when a single individual, a narcissist to the nth degree, puts his fame and happiness above all else. Not someone I would pick to form the spine of the book and not someone I enjoyed reading about. This one wasn't for me. My thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.
How refreshing to read another great book by Julie Clark focusing on two women's interlocking stories. Meg/Melody is a con artist extraordinaire - she can change her persona at will, fits right into any milieu she finds herself in, always comes out on top. Kat's been chasing her for years, seeking revenge for a set-up Meg engineered that wound up causing her years of psychic pain. Now the two of them are finally face-to-face but instead of a cat fight, we get a much more intriguing interplay where Kat becomes Melody's assistant in fleecing would-be luxury home buyers and slowly, begrudgingly, comes to admire the con woman's ability to forge her way through life, getting back at those who have done her wrong. If you like strong women who seize life by the balls and don't suffer fools, this is the book for you.
I can't say anything surprised me all that much - pretty straight-forward telling of a courtcase involving what could have been a murder, school bullying, the intrusion of the British media into private lives, and the power of social media. Well written and a solid case of characters made this an enjoyable read.
This is one of those books where the reader needs to be patient because there are time switches in the beginning that may confuse you. I'll just urge you to keep reading because by the end of Part I, the plot takes a very interesting turn and from there on in, you'll be hard pressed to put this one down. While the main characters are white privileged moneyed selfish people, by the end you at least see them as more than that - as flawed human beings who may never be entirely happy in their own skins but who you now understand at a deeper level. A sad tale - no one makes it out “aive”, particularly Cassie, our protagonist, a young girl orphaned at an early age and still longing for the warmth and safety of family.
Come for the lush, beautiful writing, stay for a unique take on romance. Feyi is just beginning to come out of the grief that has entrapped her, even since the loss of her husband five years ago. With the help of her best friend Joy, she cautiously tip-toes into dating again, only to meet a kind, understanding man and his family and begin another type of journey. A short, entrancing tale of learning to forgive yourself for past mistakes and embracing your future, this is not your typical love story, but one with deeper resonance and beauty that will stun you with its insights and its lyrical language.
My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book prior to publication.
An engrossing read about one summer, three women's lives (a mother and her 2 teenage daughters) and a father succumbing to Alzheimer's. Poignant, touching, realistic, and lyrically sound, this is one to savor.
A treat for fans of Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and historical mysteries in general, you'll be hard-pressed to guess the identity of the murderer. A well-written cozy mystery with an intricately-concocted plot, this is a golden opportunity to interact once more with a whole cast of your favorite Austen characters in a romp of a good story.