Theresa Smith's Blog, page 27
April 10, 2023
Book Review: Home Before Night by J.P. Pomare
Mother’s intuition or a deadly guilty conscience? A woman races against time to find her son in this tense and twisty thriller by the Top Ten bestselling author of The Wrong Woman.
As the third wave of the virus hits, all inhabitants of Melbourne are given until 8 pm to get to their homes. Wherever they are when the curfew begins, they must live for four weeks and stay within five kilometres of. When Lou’s son, Samuel, doesn’t arrive home by nightfall, she begins to panic.
He doesn’t answer his phone. He doesn’t message. His social media channels are inactive. Lou is out of her mind with worry, but she can’t go to the police, because she has secrets of her own. Secrets that Samuel just can’t find out about. Lou must find her son herself and bring him home.
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 26 April 2023
My Thoughts:Home Before Night is a fast-paced crime thriller with the sort of blindside twist we’ve come to expect from Pomare. Set in Melbourne during the endless Covid lockdowns. Don’t let this put you off though if you are Covid fatigued, that’s about the extent of what Covid has to do with this story. It’s more the lockdown providing the means for the disappearance to occur.
The characters aren’t particularly likeable, but they are realistic. Pomare throws out a few red herrings to mislead you along the way, making the big reveal all the more shocking. At the heart of this novel is grief, the overwhelming way in which it can alter a person’s mind and actions.
I sped through this one, enjoying it in the same way I enjoy my guilty pleasure of watching cop dramas. If anything, it ends abruptly and was a little on the short side in terms of resolution, but all in all, a satisfying read and a terrific way to finish a long weekend of reading.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
April 9, 2023
Book Review: Go As a River by Shelley Read
On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family’s farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a dishevelled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.
So begins the mesmerising story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.
Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life for ever.
GO AS A RIVER is a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettable characters and a breath-taking natural setting, it is a sweeping story of survival and becoming, of the deepest mysteries of love, truth and fate.
Published by Penguin Random House Australia – Doubleday
Released 7 March 2023
My Thoughts:Adorned with a beautiful cover and filled with lushly descriptive prose of the natural environment, Go As a River follows the life of one woman as she navigates through hardship and trauma in rural America from the 1940s through to the 1970s. The setting is stunning, the story is filled with heartbreak and hardship, the atmospheric prose flowing effortlessly almost in symmetry to the river analogy that is heavily threaded throughout the story.
‘Flowing forward against obstacle was not my whole story. For, like the river, I has also gathered along the way all the tiny pieces connecting me to everything else, and doing this had delivered me here, with two fists of forest soil in my palms and a heart still learning to be unafraid of itself. I had shaped my kindred – my lost family and lost love; my found friendships, though few; my trees that kept on living and every tree that gave me shelter; every creature I met along the way, every raindrop and snowflake choosing my shoulder, and every breeze that shifted the air; every winding path beneath my feet, every place I laid my hands and head, and every creek like the one before me, rolling off the hillside, gaining strength in gravity, spinning through the next eddy, pushing around the next bend, taking and giving in quiet agreement with every living thing.’
But…despite all of this beautiful prose and atmospheric meandering, I found this story lacking in so many ways. It wasn’t so much that there was no real plot, but more, I could see all of these plot points offered up where the author had the potential to dig deeper into an event or a character, and yet, she consistently chose to not engage with her own story. I had high expectations for this one, something on a level with Cold Mountain or Where the Crawdads Sing, but in the end, I was left wanting and wondering what all the fuss is about. Perhaps it would work better as movie. I have no doubt it will be picked up for development given the hype attached to it.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
Crushing by Genevieve Novak
When do you stop starting over? The sparkling new novel from the author of No Hard Feelings.
Getting over someone is not that difficult. All you have to do is focus on every negative thing about them for the rest of your life until you forget to stop actively hoping for their slow and painful death, then get a haircut …
Serial monogamist Marnie is running late to her own identity crisis. After a decade of twisting herself into different versions of the ideal girlfriend, she’s swearing off relationships for good. Forever. Done. No more, no thank you.
Pretty inconvenient time to meet Isaac: certified dreamboat and the only man who has ever truly got her. It’s cool, though, they’re just friends, he’s got someone else, and she has more important things to worry about. Like who she is, what she wants, and what the hell she ever saw in the love(s) of her life in the first place.
Flanked by overwhelmed new mum Nicola, terminally single Claud, and eternal pessimist Kit, Marnie reckons with the question: who are we when we’re on our own?
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia
Released 5 April 2023
My Thoughts:I loved this! Just as I loved Genevieve Novak’s debut, No Hard Feelings, her second novel, Crushing, has also ticked all of the right boxes for me. There’s something about the combination of her wit, the topics she writes about, the characters, the banter between the characters, and the deep pockets of insight sprinkled throughout, that has her at the top of my list for life-lit authors.
‘If anything, he reinforced my resolve. That someone could have a girlfriend, be loyal to the point that they reject a kiss from a cute stranger, then go on to talk to them every day, lie in bed on the phone and reach new depths of intimacy when the moon came out – it only poured concrete into the belief that happily ever after was a falsity invented by romance novelists.’
Along with this being a novel about finding yourself and starting over (again), it also takes a sharp look at the ways in which women attach themselves to men who aren’t good for them, or good to them, because of a fear of the alternative: loneliness. Living alone, sleeping alone, eating alone, dying alone. It’s a fear that can be blown off when you’re in the flush of good times going out with your mates and you aren’t the only one left single, but as soon as you are the only one left single, that urgency returns, to couple up, to settle, even if it’s not an ideal relationship.
As the novel progresses, Marnie’s metamorphosis takes on a whole new force. She not only learns to be with herself but make it her mission to show others that they can too, creating a flow on effect throughout her life for the good. I loved the dynamics between Marnie and Claude, and the sister bond between Marnie and Nicola. Within Marnie’s relationship with these two women, we witness the ways that women can also misrepresent their own relationships to their friends on account of just wanting to have a person in your corner. We also see the ways in which sometimes, as a friend, we just need to let something play out and be there when it all falls apart to help pick up the pieces.
‘This is what it is to be a woman: to give. To give life, to give support, to give herself, to give in. And in return she receives: contempt, indifference, more requests, his load. She gives until she breaks, a spiderweb of cracks in her porcelain skin, holding still until she shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.
And men take. Take the love, the support, the credit, our patience. They take and take what isn’t theirs, what never was, what was designed to be shared, not stolen, until she is tired, angry, broken and useless, only then is she granted freedom from it all: the male gaze, the pedantry, the entitlement. They lose interest when she can no longer do anything for them; when they’re no longer a doe-eyed plaything with pillowy cleavage and endless capacity.’
Not just a novel of self-discovery, this is a joyful and hopeful novel about friendship, about creating your own village, and about discovering who you are and embracing that with gusto. Highly recommended with five stars.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
April 7, 2023
Book Review: Homecoming by Kate Morton
The highly anticipated new novel from the worldwide bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, a spellbinding story that begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generations.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959:
At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia.
Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.
At Nora’s house, Jess discovers a true-crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event – a murder mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.
An epic story that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home. Above all, it is an intricate and spellbinding novel from one of the finest writers working today.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released 4th April 2023
My Thoughts:I am a long-time fan of Kate Morton, having first started reading her books when she was a debut author releasing The Shifting Fog, which perhaps, for nostalgic reasons, remains my favourite of hers. This latest release, Homecoming, was much anticipated for me. It’s written in Kate’s usual dual timeline style with several perspectives offered to enhance and complete the storytelling. It’s not as historical as is Kate’s usual though, she only goes back to the 1950s in this one, so we are looking at a story that is only a generation ago for the characters.
There is much within this novel for book lovers. In fact, much of the story rests upon a love of books for several of the characters. This is always a hook that catches me, in any novel, books about books, it’s just so wonderful when that love an author has for books and reading comes across so strongly, woven into the narrative and forming an essential part of a character’s personality.
‘They got to talking. Reading shapes a person. The landscape of books is more real, in some ways, that the one outside the window. It isn’t experienced at a remove; it is internal, vital. A young boy laid up in bed for a year because his legs refuse to work and a young girl on the other side of the globe, sent to boarding school because her parents had both died, had led completely different lives – and yet, through a mutual love of reading, they had inhabited the same world.’
The story opens with a shocking crime that has remained a mystery for decades. The main character within the contemporary storyline, Jess, stumbles upon this when she returns home to Sydney from London on account of her grandmother having an accident and being hospitalised. Jess is Nora’s next of kin, despite Jess’s mother, Polly, Nora’s daughter, still being alive. The contemporary family has secrets as thick as their descendants. Bedside murmurings and the discovery of a true crime book about her family leads Jess down a research path she becomes more and more determined to follow.
Nora was a character who we only ever know through other’s memories of her. She’s in hospital when Jess arrives back home, unresponsive, and dies shortly after. We get to know Nora through the memories of Jess and Polly, which vary greatly, along with the historical account of her included in the true crime book and subsequent interview notes provided to Jess later in the story, pertaining to the old family crime. She was a chameleon of a character, my opinion of her varied often. She was written in such a clever way, but in the end, she became to me a character whose actions reeked of self-interest and whose lies had caused immeasurable pain to members of her own family and beyond.
Homecoming is a story where its title speaks volumes for its theme. The idea of home, what makes a home, what it means to come home after a long time away, and how being absent from your home can sometimes idealise it to the point that when you do finally return, it’s not what you remembered and doesn’t conjure up the same feelings. The same home can also be something vastly different to its various custodians. I appreciated the way Kate returned to this theme throughout the story, it resonated with me as I have felt that deep longing of homesickness and understood the thematic intent instinctively.
‘Standing here now, looking across the valley towards the facing hill, Jess could imagine how homesick Isabel must have felt at times. She herself had been thinking about ‘home’ a lot. Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ‘lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.’
Homecoming is a long and winding novel, lush with descriptive prose and intimate characterisation. I will admit, that despite enjoying it thoroughly, I felt the weight and length of it at times. It’s a fine balance with very long novels, isn’t it? What is long enough to stand as a treat in these days of increasingly quick reads, and what is so long that you feel daunted by its page count. Homecoming is a must read for fans of Kate Morton, many are already calling it her best yet. I highly recommend it but also recommend you pick it up when you have the time and space to really sit with it. It’s not a novel to read in short bursts.
March 31, 2023
The Month That Was…
Life has been busy and joyful for the past month. Each of my children celebrated birthdays, turning 21, 19 and 17, and Zeus had his 10th birthday!
Zeus, making sure no one steals his back legs while he is not watching…I’ve decided to combine my weekly newsletter posts with my monthly reading check in as my life has recently taken a different turn, for the better, but also, for the busier. I am now working full-time in a professional role, back in education but this time in the private sector and in a role that works with staff rather than students. I am thrilled. The champagne has been flowing here. I feel like I might be able to make the newsletter posts more meaningful with a combined monthly one rather than weekly.
Loving these change of season sunsets…What I’ve been watching:
Jojo Rabbit is hands down one of the best films I’ve seen in awhile. The third and final season of Sanditon has arrived, episodes dropping weekly. Daisy Jones and the Six was a surprisingly good watch. I say surprisingly, because I actually didn’t enjoy the book. The TV series on the other hand, I loved! Your Place or Mine was an endearing watch, surprisingly good for Netflix who are proving themselves to be below par for movies. This one had a nice bookish undercurrent and a solid friends to lovers theme. Carnival Row is back for its second and final season. I am yet to get past episode two, not for any reason to do with enjoyment, rather, I’ve just been very tired of late and it requires a bit of concentration to follow along.
What I’ve been reading:
Throughout March, I read eight books, a number that is consistently proving to be my average. Six were review books, two were from my Kobo tbr.
Review books:
Kobo reads:
Currently reading:
I’m currently reading Homecoming by Kate Morton, her long-awaited upcoming book. It’s wonderful and immersive, as are all her books, but so very long. It’s taking me ages! A week of reading and I’m just on half-way. So far though, I do recommend it.
Until next month! Good reading x
March 25, 2023
Book Review: The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple – young, good-looking, made for each other.
The moment she walked into his mother’s grocery store in Baltimore, he was smitten, and in the heat of World War II fervour, they marry in haste. From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counter-culture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayers of later years, we watch their lives unspool and see the consequences of their very mismatched marriage.
Published by Penguin Random House – Vintage
Released October 2004
My Thoughts:Written with Anne Tyler’s classic observational style, The Amateur Marriage spans from the 1940s through to the early 2000s, dipping in and out of the family life of the Antons. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one family member, be it Pauline, Michael, or one of their children, and each chapter moves forward several years, giving that feeling as though you are just popping in for a catch up with them after having not seen them for a time. As is Anne Tyler’s way, sometimes we are there for the mundane, others, we are there for the impacting changes upon their lives. Also in Anne Tyler fashion, these big moments sneak up on you and leave you breathless.
‘People didn’t stay on an even keel in the Anton family. The did exaggerated things like throwing out their clothes or running away from home or perishing in spectacular crashes. Or showing up after twenty-nine years and wondering where everyone was.’
Pauline is a very difficult and needy woman, and her personality wears each family member down in different ways. For Lindy, Pauline proves too much. For George and Karen, and later Pagan, they bear the burden differently to Lindy and this too has its far reaching consequences. For Michael, we see the slow disintegration of their marriage and family life, only for him to develop a selective memory at the end of his life with regards to Pauline – in this, once again, Anne Tyler proves how much she is intimately acquainted with human nature and the complexities of memory and love.
When we are in the chapters told from Pauline’s perspective, we see just how complex she was. She loved hard, was not a bad woman, and yet, was incredibly selfish and demanding, her behaviour often erratic and accusatory, her love often suffocating for her children and confusing for her husband. I both understood her and was perplexed by her. As far as characters go, she was excellently crafted.
As always, I recommend this one. I haven’t yet come across an Anne Tyler I haven’t enjoyed and recommended and I’m having such a great time making my way slowly through her backlist. It’s like a treat I reward myself with every few months.
March 24, 2023
Book Review: Duck à l’Orange for Breakfast by Karina May
Maxine ‘Max’ Mayberry, an ad executive with writing ambitions, is holed up in a friend’s apartment after discovering her long-term boyfriend in bed with another woman. If that wasn’t bad enough, Max has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Enter Johnny: a cheeky yet charming Tinder pen pal and the perfect distraction. Together, Max and Johnny flirt and cook their way through The Laurent Family Cookbook (a recipe book from Max’s ex-boyfriend’s pretentious French family) without ever meeting in person.
The ‘Fork Him’ project starts as a joke, but soon transforms into something more meaningful as Max undergoes brain surgery, travels to Paris for a fresh start, and decides whether she believes in herself enough to chase the life – and the man – she really wants.
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia
Released 28th March 2023
My Thoughts:This was utterly divine. Billed as a romance, it’s also firmly foodlit and lifelit, both of which I am always a fan of. The romance aspect was woven into the story in a very Austen-like fashion, in that, it wasn’t the whole focus, nor did it come across as formulaic. The majority of this story was very much about Max, realigning her priorities in light of her brain tumour, as well as rediscovering what makes her joyful, what gives her life purpose, and which relationships she wanted to nurture and which she was more inclined to just let go of. Friendship was a big focus within this story as well.
“Life is going to throw you some curveballs, but don’t you dare let anyone dull that sparkle. You owe it to the world to share your gifts, but more than that – you owe it to yourself.”
I loved the online relationship that sprung up between Max and Johnny, cooking their way through this cookbook, meeting each night for dinner via their photographs of their completed dishes. It was fresh and unique. I find any type of fiction that revolves around food delightful, to be honest, it’s such a fantastic lynchpin for a story, particularly a romance or friendship focused one. I also enjoyed Max’s Ikea excursions; it made me wish I had one nearby!
There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this one. It’s heart-warming, funny, filled with all sorts of deliciousness, it even has a trip to France nestled within it that was incredibly atmospheric. The love shines through, not just romantic love, but that between friends and family, and all in all, it was an utter delight.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
March 21, 2023
Book Review: Prettier if She Smiled More by Toni Jordan
One perfect life. One disastrous week. The brand-new novel from bestselling, acclaimed and beloved author Toni Jordan.
As the eldest child in a single-parent family, Kylie’s always had more important things on her mind than smiling for random strangers. Controlling her job, her home, her romantic life and – most importantly – her family takes all her concentration. She’s always succeeded, though, because that’s just who Kylie is.
When her fiercely independent mother breaks an ankle and needs help, it’s up to Kylie, as usual, to fix things. She reluctantly packs her bags and moves in, but back in her childhood home, things start to unravel. Could it be that Kylie’s carefully curated life is not so perfect after all?
Prettier if She Smiled More will make you laugh and make you cry. Is it too late to start over?
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 29th March 2023
My Thoughts:Last year, Toni Jordan gifted us with Dinner with the Schnabels, which was an absolute laugh out loud delight from start to finish. This year, she’s gifted us Prettier if She Smiled More, a return to the Schnabel family but this time, from the perspective of eldest daughter, Kylie. We spend one week with Kylie and her family, and what a week it is!
‘Dogs only like us because they know we’re bones on the inside,’ said Mia.
Comedy, that comes across well on the page, is no easy feat, yet Toni Jordan makes it look effortless. Prettier if She Smiled More is just as funny as Dinner with the Schnabels, yet possibly a bit more cutting and on point. This can be attributed to Kylie herself, who was just the most terrific character, and Gloria, her mother, who was incredible in every way, and I don’t mean that entirely as a compliment! Their dynamic was truly hilarious at times.
‘The family photos taken when the children were young though, couldn’t be replaced – which led to a crisis. In those years before Photoshop, what could be done about David, who was in the centre of many of the said photos and who Gloria wished dead several times a day in a variety of painful ways? Facing the grinning face of her ex-husband every day in her own home was untenable.
Gloria’s solution had been to cut out a range of Kevin Costner heads of varying sizes from different magazines and glue them over similarly sized David heads. Now the family photos lined up on the mantel were of Gloria and Kevin, standing proudly behind their children, young Kylie, Tansy and Nick.’
I could relate to Kylie in so many ways and really enjoyed walking in her shoes for the week that this novel spanned. It was entertaining to see her handle each new curve ball thrown her way, and also, uplifting, to see her reinvent herself over the course of the week and arrive at a place where she was ready to live her life with a different intention. I also found it deeply moving when the family all realised just how much of a sacrifice Kylie had made for them all as a teenager during her parents’ divorce, a sacrifice that had changed the course of her life. I went from laughter to tears in an instant during that moment.
I loved this novel and recommend it far and wide. Five big golden starbursts!
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
March 19, 2023
Book Review: The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman
Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it’s not long before she is sent to the fortress at Vardo, to be tried and condemned as a witch.
Zigri’s daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren – herself the daughter of a witch - whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family.
Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark’s mistress, who has been sent to Vardo in disgrace. What will she do – and who will she betray – to return to her privileged life at court?
These Witches of Vardo are stronger than even the King of Denmark. In an age weighted against them they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power.
Published by Allen & Unwin – Bonnier (Manilla)
Released 4th April 2023
My Thoughts:It’s been established long ago that I’m a fan of novels that dip into the history of witches and witch trials, so this one was always going to be a winner for me. It’s quite a slow burn, as many of these stories tend to be. The groundwork needs to be laid, the characters’ lives fleshed out so we can see them day to day before we bear witness on how they go from ordinary women to accused witches awaiting trial and being tortured into making confessions to crimes they did not commit.
‘The Witches of Vardo is inspired by the very real and terrible events of witch hunts which took place on the island of Vardo between 1662 and 1663. A total of twenty women died as a result of witchcraft persecutions between October 1662 and April 1663. Eighteen were burnt at the stake and two were tortured to death.
During the witchcraft trials in Finnmark in northern Norway, during the seventeenth century, 135 persons were tried, 91 of whom were executed, most of them at the stake.’ – Author note (On Fact and Fiction).
The author relies heavily on history for this story, but it is in no way a dense read. She carefully charts a journey where it is demonstrated over and over, just how perilous it was to be a woman in the seventeenth century, particularly a widow or a midwife, intelligent, or even, heaven forbid, beautiful. It was certainly a man’s world and they ruled it with fear, blame, and recrimination.
‘There are no witches in our village, Ingeborg, but the Devil does exist. Look into the eyes of our accusers and you will see him there.’
This novel is unflinching in its portrayal of what awaiting a witch trial meant for the accused. The brutality was severe, the degradations, the inevitable outcome. It is not a novel for the fainthearted, yet it is also not gratuitous in its portrayal.
The Witches of Vardo is a must read for fans of this area of history. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.
March 18, 2023
Book Review: Small Joys of Real Life by Allee Richards
Shortlisted for both The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers and the Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.
The night Eva shared a smile with Pat, something started. Two weeks later, lying together in her bed, Pat said, ‘You can’t live your life saying you’ll get around to doing something you know will make you happy. You just have to do it.’
Eva didn’t know how devastating those words would turn out to be. Pat dies and the aftershock leaves Eva on unsteady ground. She is pregnant. And she has to make a choice.
Suddenly, the world that she at times already questioned, her career, her roommates and friends, and life in the inner-city are all even harder to navigate. Her best friends, Sarah and Annie, are also dealing with the shifts and changes of their late twenties, and each of them will at times let the others down.
Small Joys of Real Life is a poignant and unpredictable novel from an exciting new literary talent about how the life you have can change in an instant. It’s about friendship, desire, loss and growing up to accept that all you can do is be in the moment and look to find the joys in between.
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 28th July 2021
My Thoughts:What a gorgeous novel this turned out to be. I’m such a huge fan of contemporary life-lit reads, those novels that get inside the lives of the characters, where they aren’t plot driven, but simply about life, in all its pain and glory. Small Joys of Real Life is about friendship and grief. About mourning not only the loss of someone, but the loss of all the potential they had to be within your own life.
The beauty of this story lies in its purity. Eva thought she’d found someone who might have been ‘the one’. Yet he dies, within weeks of them meeting. And she is left pregnant. As she navigates through her pregnancy with the support of her two best friends, she is also mourning the loss of Pat, the Pat she had just begun to get to know, along with the Pat she uncovers by digging through old social media posts made by him and his close friends. She forms a narrative of what their life together might have been like, had he lived.
This novel is devastating, yet beautifully uplifting at the same time. Allee Richards is a true literary talent. Her next novel is out later this year and I can’t wait.
