About the Book:
The life she's designing may not be the life she's meant to live.
Bay Area interior designer to the rich and pretentious, Audrey Needham is already on thin ice with her impossible-to-please boss when her great-aunt Daisy asks for support as her husband descends into Alzheimer's. Now Audrey is risking the career she worked hard to build as she returns to Charity Falls, Oregon.
Her feelings toward the idyllic small town are . . . complicated. While she has many good memories of her childhood summers there, Charity Falls is also the place her father was killed in a tragic fire at the Sugar Pine Inn thirteen years ago.
Despite Audrey's intent to avoid emotional entanglement, something should be done about the deteriorating inn. A local girl with an incarcerated father needs a friend. And handsome local do-gooder Cade Carter is coloring Audrey all shades of uncertain. The pull of home is hard to resist.
My Review:
This is an adult coming of age novel as Audrey finds out what she really wants in life. A number of issues revolve around that frame. There is Audrey's great uncle who has dementia and there is a girl whose father is in prison. There is a potential romance but an obstacle creating misunderstanding. Healing from grief is also explored.
The plot might be a bit predictable and unrealistic with the necessary intervening event happening just a the necessary time. But then, this is fiction and a debut novel. I think Tosello will get more creative in her plot construction over time. She is a word smith and there were some passages where the writing was quite beautiful.
The first person narratives alternate between Daisy and Audrey. While the character is identified at the beginning of each section, it is not a technique I like. Reading an ebook, it is too easy to be confused as to the point of view a little way into a chapter.
This is just a feel good novel. It is one where you sigh at the end, feeling good.
My rating: 4/5 stars.
About the Author:
Kit Tosello is an award-winning writer of small-town contemporary fiction with a big heart, as well as inspirational essays and devotionals. With her eye trained on the beauty hiding in plain sight all around us, she arranges words with tenderness, humor, and hope. When not writing, Kit can be found in the loose-tea shop she operates with her husband, exploring the great Pacific Northwest, or enjoying the "great indoors"--bookstores and libraries. Always with a matcha latte in hand. Learn more at KitTosello.com. Photo credit: © Ely Roberts
Revell, 352 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.)
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