Rolling Toward Clear Skies by Catherine Ryan Hyde Book Review

About the Book:

Maggie Blount, divorced mother of two and California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex—Maggie’s professional and romantic partner—wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. It’s enough to break Maggie’s heart, and she’s not leaving them behind.

Feeling blessed and looking forward to their new foster home in affluent Vista del Mar—a world apart from the one they’ve known—Jean and Rose are polite, appreciative, and humble. Frankly, they're the polar opposite of Maggie’s own self-involved teenage daughters, Willa and Gemma, who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Soon enough, Maggie’s new blended family is in chaos.

Teaching Willa and Gemma about gratitude and empathy will be hard enough. Maggie must also admit her own role in their entitled upbringing, undo the damage, and anticipate the needs of all four girls and a puppy, all amid faraway natural disasters and those closer to home.

My Review:

Hyde writes feel good books. There is something compelling about her novels. Yes, they are predictable. We know all the troubles people are experiencing will some how work to a happy result in the end. And while that may not be how life is sometimes, it is how we would like to be and that makes this fiction a rewarding novel to read. It fulfills what I want in fiction, an escape from all the bad news by experiencing an interlude of good news.

Hyde explores family relationships in this novel. She includes two girls orphaned by a hurricane tragedy and counters them with two girls who are spoiled and ungrateful. Granted, the two sets of girls may be over characterized. The newly orphaned girls are really, really nice and so, so grateful and so naive. The other girls are so, so ungrateful and resentful and way too sophisticated. The contrast may be over the top but it makes for a good novel about the struggles of understanding the meaning of family and accepting changes.

Hyde includes bits of wisdom along the way. Here is one from when one of the girls is learning to drive. “We tend to end up where we are putting our attention.” (2404/4415) A good reminder of checking where we place our focus.

This is a fine novel for readers who like to feel good at the end of reading one.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of well over forty-five books and counting. An avid traveler, equestrian, and amateur photographer, she shares her astrophotography with readers on her website.

Her novel Pay It Forward was adapted into a major motion picture, chosen by the American Library Association (ALA) for its Best Books for Young Adults list, and translated into more than twenty-three languages for distribution in over thirty countries. Both Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA’s Rainbow Book List, and Jumpstart the World was a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards. Where We Belong won two Rainbow Awards in 2013, and The Language of Hoofbeats won a Rainbow Award in 2015.

More than fifty of her short stories have been published in the Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and many other journals; in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts; and in the bestselling anthology Dog Is My Co-Pilot. Her stories have been honored by the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the Tobias Wolff Award and have been nominated for The Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have been cited in the annual Best American Short Stories anthology.

As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.

For more information, please visit the author at catherineryanhyde.com.

Lake Union Publishing, 302 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)