The characters, the characters, the characters. They were so nuanced and real and Whitaker writes about cops in a way that rings so true--not just action-adventure heroes--or racist thugs--but flawed, struggling, kind human beings (I am married to a cop). But I loved all of the characters--the grandfather, and Robin, and Thomas Noble--and Duchess. My heart broke for these characters and I loved that too--Whitaker's book is ultimately hopeful and such a testament to love, but he doesn't protect his characters from the bad stuff.
Winner of the Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel from the Crime Writers’ Association (UK) Winner for Best International Crime Fiction from Australian Crime Writers Association An Instant New York Times Bestseller
“A vibrant, engrossing, unputdownable thriller that packs a serious emotional punch. One of those rare books that surprise you along the way and then linger in your mind long after you have finished it.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds
Right. Wrong. Life is lived somewhere in between.
Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for…
I was immersed in Julia's world. She is a flawed mother and wife in a long marriage, with all the ordinary issues of any long marriage. Nothing earth shattering in the plot, but I felt I lived in Julia's house, her neighborhood, I could see her kids, could feel her struggles with depression, with wanting to be a different kind of mother than the one she had. I read this as a library book, then bought it, so I could study Lombardo's careful details, the way she really puts you into the character's heads and hearts and homes. This is a quiet book, but it reminded me, as a writer, to go slow, to create a fully realized world for the readers.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK BY PEOPLE AND PARADE • The New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had (“wonderfully immersive…deliciously absorbing”—NPR) returns with another brilliantly observed family drama in which the enduring, hard-won affection of a long marriage faces imminent derailment from events both past and present.
“Infidelity, dysfunction, secrets – this family novel delivers."—The New York Times • "Lombardo has such a fine eye for the weft and warp of a family’s fabric." —The Washington Post • “Witty and insightful...a powerful exploration of marriage, motherhood, and self.”–Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons…
Leah Hager Cohen's writing makes me want to write. I loved her beautiful descriptions of the small-town theater, the comments on how theater asks us to do what we spend our lives trying not to do: be vulnerable, show our raw emotions. I am not a theater person at all--I know next to nothing about it--but I cared about these real people and it made me think about all the drama and heartache in any group--a book club, running club, writing organization. We bring such hope and longing to these things that we devout our after work hours to....
Provides a poignant portrait of a small Massachusettes community theater in its seventy-fifth year of operation, as it becomes embroiled in disputes over proposed structural changes and its auditions for it most controversial play to date, M. Butterfly. Reprint.
Ten years before A Season of Perfect Happiness begins, Claire had a life she loved: She lived in a beautiful beach town, was close to her family, had great friends, and was married to her high school sweetheart. When a tragedy upends it all, she understands that her only chance to have “a normal life” is to start over in a new town. Now, after nearly a decade in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, she’s finally ready to find love, even happiness. But what of her past does she owe her new friends or the man with whom she falls in love? This is the question at the heart of the novel: What is our most authentic self? The one we try to hide or the one we strive each day to be?
