Abandoned by Booklikes

I thought that this novel by Ann Leary showed great promise at the beginning but ultimately in the end still had some issues that need to be tightened up a bit.

We have the main protagonist of this novel, Hildy Good, who was born and raised in a small town near Boston. Hildy we find is a recovering alcoholic (though not really according to her)who is still recovering from her divorce from her husband and dealing with the recent downturn of her real estate business. Hildy jumps around in the storyline a lot which you can understand a bit better at the end when you see why the storyline at times may have been hazy or very clear. It is a bit problematic though if you are trying to follow along with what is going on.

The storyline floats between Hildy and a recent addition to the town, Rebecca McCallister. Rebecca and her family have bought a million dollar home and farm and their lives start intertwining with other residents in the town. The reader does not ever get to get inside Rebecca's head at all but we merely get our opinions about Rebecca from Hildy. In fact you as a reader have to solely rely on Hildy to give you the "truth" of any given situation so until the end of the novel you realize that it may not have been the best way to structure the novel. I wish we had the novel told from two points of views, Hildy's and Rebecca's just so we could see which version was more accurate or would we have discovered that something in between was more accurate.

I think there were several issues with the novel that caused me to lower it by two stars.

The first issue was that at times Hildy would relate a story about some resident in town when it often was not necessary to what we are reading. So oftentimes stories meandered along and you wondered if this needed to be known later on or was it just a story being told for the sake of being told.

The second issue is that Hildy as a character was not appealing at all. When you get to see her layers pulled back you ultimately get a look at a selfish and totally delusional person. Some of the things she did in the novel just made her off putting to me. Besides Hildy being off putting so was the character of Rebecca. So in the end I rooted for neither character and just felt dissatisfied at the ending.

The third issue is an issue I am having with several new novels lately. If the book description to the novel really does not match what the storyline is about then I get irritated that I wasted my time reading and buying a novel that if I had known what it was about I would have skipped past.

I still think that Ann Leary writes very well and when she gets into a groove at certain parts in the novel I was totally enthralled. I think if some things had been edited and perhaps we get to see more into Rebecca's head it would have made the novel more balanced for me. I would still recommend reading if you are looking for a novel to pass the time with.

Please note that I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program.