Days of Wonder

When we first meet Ella, she is being released from prison, after serving six years of a twenty-five year sentence for attempting to murder her high school boyfriend's father. Ella's single mother Helen, who was raised in an insular Hasidic Jewish community, is there for her daughter, smothering her in love and suggesting that the two of them leave New York City for a small town that won't know about Ella's notoriety.

But Ella has other plans. While in prison, she gave birth to boyfriend Jude's baby and is now determined to find her child. With some highly improbable snooping, she learns that she has a daughter who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her adoptive parents. Ella lies to Helen about why this college town appeals to her, finds a job writing a weekly advice column (that pays enough to live on?), and starts a new life that elides her past.

I had trouble connecting to the novel's characters, who frequently behave like actors in a mediocre Lifetime movie drama. We follow Ella as she makes a series of bad decisions in Ann Arbor, and Helen as she tries to make a life for herself after focusing solely on her daughter for 22 years. There are also flashbacks to the star-crossed romance between Ella and Jude, complete with an Evil Ogre who tries to keep the lovers apart, and the act that resulted in Ella's incarceration. The plot occasionally drops in on present-day Jude, whose character isn't developed much beyond Poor Little Rich Boy. Both Ella and Helen are presented with potential new romantic partners, but the men are barely three-dimensional and feel superfluous, especially for Ella.

The story's most emotionally resonant relationship is between Ella and Helen. The flashbacks to Helen's expulsion from the Hasidic community explain her desire to recreate a feeling of belonging with her daughter. Despite their love, the two women hurt each other both purposefully and inadvertently, but when Ella's world comes undone a second time, their relationship pulls her through. By the book's conclusion, their bond is healthier, allowing Ella to demonstrate newfound maturity in her decisions, and Helen to finally start living her own life.

The characters and plot of Days of Wonder were too melodramatic for my tastes. YMMV if you're okay with almost constant angst that includes triggering passages about biological and adoptive parents.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.