why does it have to end?!

Business Casual by B.K. Borison

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: I am so glad that I discovered Lovelight Farms and the town of Inglewild, and I hope that Borison changes her mind and writes more stories about other characters in the small town.  Borison's characters grow and change over the four books, but remain true to themselves, even when the focus has moved on to another couple.  My only complaint about this last installment is that Nova and Charlie's story is a bit too similar to Luka and Stella's story, but, again, it's Borison's characterizations that make this story a success.  Even if Nova and Charlie's path is similar to Luka and Stella's, they are very different characters, and that makes all the difference.  Borison has given us another warm and fuzzy (and steamy) love story.  You probably won't want to have to leave Inglewild either.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

a fitting end

Somebody's Fool by Richard Russo

Genre: fiction

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Review: Donald "Sully" Sullivan may have died in the 2nd book of the North Bath trilogy, but he proves that he was always larger than life by remaining the driving force in the lives of those he left behind.  However, his death does allow several characters who were on the sidelines before to take center stage, including: Sully's loyal sidekick, Rub; the chief of police, Doug Raymer; Sully's longtime paramour, Ruth, and her daughter and granddaughter; and especially Sully's son, Peter.  Russo writes his characters with warmth, bringing to life their struggles and successes as they navigate a changing world and ultimately find hope as they learn to rely on and help each other.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

worth fixing, or not?

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: Anders is a cub journalist for a small newspaper on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with dreams of becoming the next podcast sensation.  When he is sent to tiny Frick Island to cover their Cake Walk, he can't help but roll his eyes at the seemingly backward way of life there, where there's a single point of Internet access and no cellphone coverage.  But he is intrigued by Piper Parrish, whose husband is a recent victim of shipwreck, especially when he realizes that she's acting as though he's still alive, and the whole town seems to be going along with it.  Anders makes Piper's story the focus of his next podcast series, with the more or less good intentions of perhaps helping other people suffering from profound grief.

In some ways, this is a good book.  Anders, Piper, and many supporting characters are well-drawn and sympathetic.  Unfortunately, an underlying premise of the book is a logical fallacy.  Frick Island is slowly disappearing due to rising ocean levels, but it so out-of-the-way and underpopulated that the Army Corps of Engineers decided it wasn't worth it to do any beach reconstruction to try to save it.  But, someone has decided to build a cell tower on the island.  The plot of the book turns on the fact that once the tower is completed, Piper (and the rest of the island's residents) will be able to finally hear Anders's podcast, and will be deeply upset by what they will undoubtedly feel is his betrayal.  Verily, the tower is built, the podcast is listened to, and the people are upset, bringing us to the climax of the book.  But why?  Why would any company want to put a tower on an island to serve so few people, particularly when the residents themselves are at least indifferent, and at most virulently opposed to the tower?  That question is never answered.

So, read this book if you're looking for a nice small-town tale, but if you can't look past the inconsistency at the heart of the book, maybe pass on this one.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the ghost of a town

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction (with a pinch of historical fiction)

Review: If you're like me, you've been waiting a long time to find out what happened to your favorite characters from Whistle Stop, Alabama, not to mention Evelyn Couch.  Where did they go?  Did they all lose touch?  I can tell you without spoiling anything that the answer to the latter is no, they didn't.  Dot Weems first sends Christmas cards and then discovers email to keep everyone in the loop.  But what about the town itself?

Well, it's probably better not to ask what Whistle Stop looks like these days.  But when Bud Threadgoode's granddaughter Ruthie meets up with Evelyn Couch they are unfazed by what 50+ years of neglect can do to a town.

It may have taken a while, but Fannie Flagg does not disappoint with this sequel.  In her typical chatty style, we learn about what happened to the town and its inhabitants when the trains started just passing through without stopping.  And then we zoom into the future to see how Whistle Stop lives on in spirit, and maybe even in reality.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

not all adults here

All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Some books are enjoyed because of plot, some because of characters, others because of the tone or style of the language.  One might recommend this book for the plot, which moves along, or possibly even the style, which is engaging, but probably not for the characters, most of whom seem more to become fully colored in, more than they grow throughout the book.

But there are plot points aplenty.  The book nominally centers around the matriarch of the family, who has a stunning revelation to share with her three grown children.  Her middle child, and only daughter, has a very different revelation of her own, and her eldest son is struggling with a weighty decision.  Her granddaughter is struggling with a new school, and the reason she left her old school.  There's more than enough here to keep us turning the pages.

My biggest issue with this book is the fact that they are not, in fact, all adults.  The most compelling parts of this book come from children.  Eighth graders, to be specific, as they navigate the difference between secrecy and loyalty, and what it means to really be someone's friend.  It is these parts of the book that had the most meat to them.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

when the ice melts

Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
Genre: fiction
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review: Every story needs a hook, and for Laurentian Divide it's the question of what happened to Rauri Paar, the odd man who winters alone on his island.  His appearance heralds the true return of spring to the residents of Hatchet Inlet.  But the answer to that question is not nearly as interesting as the stories of the people who are asking it.  There's: the widower who's about to marry the woman nearly 20 years his junior (they're deeply in love); his son, the veterinarian who's also a recovering alcoholic; and his fiancee, who's dealing with a mother with major dementia and reeling from the loss of her neice, who was killed in a drunk driving accident.  These are the people who tell the story, of their past and their present, that color the book in shades of ice blue and the green of new buds.

Unlike other books small-town books, I never got a sense of the town itself, although the larger scenery of Minnesota on the Canadian border comes through vividly (it may have helped that I was there not long ago).  As for what happened to Rauri Paar, the answer is appropriately anticlimactic, serving to satisfy the the curiosity of both reader and town, without overshadowing the characters the reader has come to identify with.  The revelation also allows the book to come to a graceful, natural ending.  I was pleased to learn that this is the second book in a planned trilogy, although it can be read alone; I'll almost certainly pick up the first one, and I'll be looking for the third when it comes out.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

old friends

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I spent the first 2/3 or so of this book just hoping that when the big reveal(s) came I wouldn't be too disappointed.  It becomes clear early on that something, probably something tragic, happened to Kit at some point, and that something shady is going on with Sunny's family, but for quite some time there really aren't any clues as to what.  In Kit's case, I wasn't disappointed at all.  What happened to her is sufficiently dramatic to make her current circumstances realistic, but not overblown.  Not only that, but the course of learning her backstory side-by-side with her ongoing story made her a more sympathetic character.

Sunny's story isn't as well done, unfortunately.  After being half revealed, the mystery is left to lie fallow until nearly the end of book, at which point it is hastily revealed and even more hastily resolved.  In Sunny's case, though, the mystery has more to do with her parents, and it's really her journey of learning who her parents really are and figuring out how to deal with that knowledge that makes for compelling reading.

None of the characters in this book are particularly three-dimensional, but Halpern writes so well about how they fit together, that it almost doesn't matter.  Every time I opened this book a felt like I was walking into the grand old library in washed-up Riverton, NH, about to meet my own good friends.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

small-town spinsterhood?

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Challenge: A-Z (author)
Summary/Review: I started this book with high hopes; I'd heard such good things about Trigiani's other books (especially Lucia, Lucia). But I was more than a little disappointed. I found the writing to be trite, and the characters' behavior too often inexplicable.

This book is supposedly about how Ave Maria, the "town spinster" of Big Stone Gap, finds herself and finds love over the course of a year. I suppose that she does, but there were too many improbable things in the story to make either of her discoveries believable.

One discovery that is believable: after her mother dies, Ave Maria is given a letter that her mother wrote and left in the care of her lawyer. The letter explains that the man Ave Maria has thought of as her father (who died many years before the story begins), isn't, and that her real father is an Italian man that her mother had to leave behind when she became pregnant. So far, fine. Part of what results is that the family of her erstwhile father come clamoring for what they see is now their inheritance, including the house Ave Maria grew up in and the pharmacy business she now owns and runs. What does Ave Maria do? Rather than fighting this based on the fact that her father's will gave all of his property to her mother, who then gave it to her (although this is mentioned), Ave Maria chooses to protect the assets from the grubbing relatives by transferring the whole thing to her 16-year-old assistant! And as if that weren't improbable enough, she then begins to separate herself from the every-day running of the business and leaves it in the teenager's "capable hands"!

Moving on. At 35, Ave Maria is thought of by the town and by herself as a spinster. She prizes herself on her independence, although she wishes she could fall in love with someone who would want to marry her. But, when someone she's known since childhood suddenly proposes to her, she says no, thinking that he's only asking her out of pity, or is playing some kind of trick on her (this I found eminently believable, because if someone up and proposed to me without any sign that they had any special feelings for me, I'd feel the same way!). The man in question gets mightily offended, but doesn't stop trying. Unfortunately, he also doesn't really do anything to demonstrate that he's loved her since they were children (we don't find this out until much later). So why should either we, as readers, much less Ave Maria, believe that he's madly in love with her? Apparently, all her friends knew he was in love her, but we're not told any single thing that he did to demonstrate it. What's more, they apparently knew that she was in love with him, even though we're not told what she may have said or done to give that away. And, none of them will tell her what they've so sneakily observed. Ave Maria does eventually feel all the love, and they get married quickly, and seem very happy. Which is great. Except I don't believe it.