Autumn, One Spring

by Patti Grayson

Autumn Greene returns to her hometown after a six-year absence, uninvited to her sister Christine's wedding, the daughter she conceived in a one-time encounter with her sister's ex-fiancé in tow. Once burned, twice angry, Christine does all she can to make Autumn unwelcome, assuming another wedding disaster. A harbinger of truth, Autumn reveals all of Christine's secrets and brings about a near-nuclear explosion of emotion and confusion among the family and wedding party. In the fallout of this strangest of romances, forgiveness emerges as the biggest challenge.Autumn, One Spring is a humour-infused drama that takes truthfulness in relationships seriously. Autumn constantly berates herself for making people unhappy when she opens her big mouth, but can't stop herself from stating frankly all she sees, hears, and thinks.Grayson's Autumn is a young woman who has transformed from a love poem-writing teenager with a crush on her high-school English teacher, Mr. Ashton, to a world-weary working single mom. Returning to her hometown brings her face to face with both Gabriel Ashton and the father of her child, forcing her to open doors to new life possibilities.Autumn's well-developed character touches a chord in anyone who has ever experienced love's cruel injustice, and the ever-spiralling plot keeps her readers glued to the page to see what the final outcome will be.

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2010

Reviews

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am completely split down the middle on this book. On one hand I loved it—I connected immediately with Autumn, insights abounded, and there was some very interesting phrasing. In general the writing was good (it was definitely clean [by which I mean it wasn't jarring/didn't pull the reader out of the text]). On the other hand, there were a few things that popped up which seemed like they weren't necessary, could have been avoided, or should have been rethought.

Examples:

CONNECTING WITH AUTUMN: Call me narcissistic, but this was the first time I saw my own thought streams reflected in a novel. I didn't find it distracting, because this is how I normally process things (jumping all over the place). I don't know if other readers will have the same experience or not.

INSIGHTS ABOUNDED: Somewhat related to "Connecting with Autumn"; my favourite was "That is the sole purpose of dithering—to hold on to all the outcomes for as long as possible."

INTERESTING PHRASING: The writing is decent and pretty entertaining: "No wonder Dr. Jewel has no end of business. Youth blasts off after a very brief countdown and steers straight for the wormholes."
"My knees might buckle if I take a step, and I have spent enough time looking into the bear rug's teeth. The snarling mouth competes for my attention."

UNNECESSARY: Chernobyl. It feels like the author did research on the disaster and wanted to insert it into the text, or wanted to catch readers by mentioning a big historical event, or wanted to draw some sort of parallel between the event and the main character's life. It's mentioned more in the first half of the book than the second half, and it is extremely distracting from the plot (which has nothing to do with Chernobyl). Dating the story with such a well-known event seems counter-intuitive for a coming-home story that is otherwise timeless.

AVOIDABLE: Odd character traits. Characters are difficult to craft in a believable way, and quirky traits can be devices that help make them more real. Some of the choices made created distracting characters. One of the main characters, a high school English teacher, references Batman. A lot. I suspect he may have a real-life double, but as a fictional character, he didn't ring true. I had a similar feeling about the plastic surgeon's speech patterns. They differentiated her from the rest of the cast, and probably are reflective of a living human, but they felt overdone for the character.

RETHOUGHT: There was a neat little bow. There were enough plot twists that things were interesting and you wanted to keep reading, but there was a neat little bow. (Hard to elaborate on without spoiling things.) And a lot of the ribbon was related to things that could not or would not happen in real life (well, they might, but no one would believe it). The overall effect was that the ending seemed rushed (not rushed in pace, but rushed in writing [not thought out]). There were also references to popular culture that felt like weak attempts to be relevant to the audience.


Overall, I am richer for reading this book and I think most readers will enjoy it. In general, I would equate it with a not-quite-perfectly formed television program—an entertaining read, but you have to be willing to open your mind to accept the "Ka-Pows" that arise.

[Lianne]

A Christmas present from a Canadian friend. This is Can Chick Lit, set both in my hometown of Winnipeg, and in Northern Ontario where I spent my college summers. The heroine is an impulsive and outspoken prodigal daughter, returning home for her sister's wedding. She is not altogether welcome because she broke up her sister's previous engagement with a one night stand with her sister's fiance. This unexpected event resulted in the birth of her daughter. The atmosphere of a northern mining town is convincingly portrayed with its ingrown histories, quirky characters and familial dysfunctions.Light reading or "brain candy" as my friend would say.

[A Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in one day. It was a great captivating story and I enjoyed it. I love the way it was written and it was funny and believable.

[Carolyn Janzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. A few tears but a lot of laughs.