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Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
Published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan
When Nick has to leave in the middle of their anniversary dinner, Tessa doesn’t really mind. That is, after all, the price of being married to a pediatric surgeon: when other families have emergencies, their family often loses his attention. This time, though, his attention isn’t just lost for an evening. Things have been a little difficult at home where Tessa feels less than fulfilled as a stay-at-home mom and they have two small children, and Nick finds himself drawn to Valerie, the single mother of his newest patient, Charlie.
This is my first experience with Emily Giffin. In the past, I have passed over her books due to the pastel covers. They looked like just the sort of chick lit that I don’t enjoy. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually opened “Heart of the Matter.” I really liked her style, characterizations, and writing in general. I thought that having both Tessa and Valerie narrate the book was a good decision for this story, as was telling Tessa’s story in the first person and Valerie’s in the third, which made it easy to immediately tell who was speaking since both narrators were women in similar places in their lives.
Although I was impressed by Giffin’s writing, I’m still somewhat conflicted about “Heart of the Matter” overall. The premise seems to be that Tessa was at least equally responsible with Nick and Valerie for her husband’s cheating, which is a somewhat reprehensible idea to me. Tessa’s earlier broken engagement for Nick and the fact that her brother cheated on his once-fiancee with the woman who is now his wife, along with her father’s cheating on her mother when she were younger also adds to this interpretation. Valerie knew she was doing wrong the entire time, but never actually bothered to put the brakes on what was going on with her and another woman’s husband. Of course, Nick is the one who actually had a responsibility to Tessa and his family to remain faithful. I really wish that he had been one of our narrators as well, so we could have gotten a better idea of what he was thinking.
If the cheating doesn’t bother you, then I recommend “Heart of the Matter,” but if it is a hot button topic with you, I don’t think you’ll like how Giffin approaches it, so stay away.
This review was done with a book received from the publisher for my participation in the SheKnows Book Club.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
Published by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House
Becca and John’s wedding is a gorgeous and happy event despite everything that goes wrong, like the flower girl losing her basket before pictures, Becca’s father wearing sneakers because he packed two left dress shoes, and the fact that their mothers don’t really get along well. When the group pictures are finished, Becca and John stay behind for more pictures while the rest of the wedding party and guests move on to the reception. Everyone begins to get antsy when the bride and groom take an inordinately long time to arrive, until it finally becomes clear that tragedy has struck what should have been such a happy day, and both families will have to figure out a way to live with their grief.
I’m not sure there is a single thing I would change about “Red Hook Road,” it just captivated me and held me rapt, letting me experiencing the grief and anger of Becca and John’s without putting me so deep into their emotions that I couldn’t bear to pick up the book.
The prelude of the book was perfectly done. Waldman described the wedding in impersonal terms: the bride, the groom, the flower girl, letting the reader watch what was unfolding without yet being sure who these characters were and how they would play into the story. It was very well done, and I think a good decision since the bride and groom were obviously very central characters in the wedding, but in the rest of the book served as more of catalysts for emotion and action than as actual characters.
It would have been easy for a novel about four summers of grief and attempts at healing to seem drawn out and perhaps even obnoxious. Not so with “Red Hook Road.” Waldman’s characters continued to evolve and deal with their pain in different ways, even as they clung to the memories of their lost family members, and even as their loss exacerbated other problems in their lives.
Waldman hit every note perfectly with “Red Hook Road.” After reading it I feel the need to read her previous novels as soon as possible. Very highly recommended.
This review was done with a book received from the publisher, through Shelf Awareness.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
“The Dark Rose” is the second in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ ‘Morland Dynasty’ series. I have previously reviewed the first book, “The Founding.” Because the books deal with successive generations of the same family, they largely stand on their own and do not really contain any significant spoilers for one another.
In “The Dark Rose,” Paul Morland – founder Eleanor’s great-grandson – has become the head of the Morland dynasty. England has had a bit of a change of leadership as well; the house of York, with whom the Morlands were long allied, has fallen and it is the Tudors who now rule. Just as the Tudors are now dealing with contenders to the throne, Paul is dealing with different factions competing for his affection and a place as a member of his family. Between his wife and children and his mistress and illegitimate son, as well as his half-siblings who he believes to be illegitimate, things are quite messy in the Morland household.
Okay, so “The Dark Rose” isn’t actually as melodramatic as I made it sound, but Paul does act a bit brooding in much of the first half of the book. In fact, he was so brooding as to be somewhat obnoxious, and gave me a bit of difficulty in getting into the book initially. As Paul grew up a bit more and started to act it, though, I slipped into the book more easily. Things got even easier when Nanette, Paul’s niece, became a major character. She was much easier to identify with, and her life was also a bit more interesting, as for some time she was living at court with Anne Boleyn during Anne’s meteoric rise and fall. Harrod-Eagles changed a few pieces of history for no reason that I could discern, however, and that drew me out of the story a few times. For instance, she had Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of Anne and Mary, dying when the girls were young. That is not true, and it seemed to serve no purpose other than annoy me any time it was mentioned. Then there was the whole thing with the uncle and niece falling in love. I’ve more or less made my peace with the creepiness of the cousins constantly marrying one another (and in EVERY generation…), but the uncle to half-niece was just ick. They seemed like true love and all, but my brain just kept going ‘ick, ick, ick, ick, ick.”
Overall, I did very much enjoy “The Dark Rose,” although perhaps not quite as much as “The Founding.” I liked it enough that I’m excited for “The Princeling,” the next book in the Morland dynasty series.
This review was done with a book received from Danielle at Sourcebooks.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
Winnie McClelland and Jerry Trevis’s families aren’t particularly happy when they marry in their 70s. Jerry’s daughter in particular feels that she is being abandoned – or that her family’s fortune is going to abandon her, she doesn’t seem to have fully admitted to herself what her motivations are. This, of course, makes things slightly awkward for her son Avery who ends up between Annette and Jerry. The tension with Annette doesn’t just affect Jerry’s side of the family, though, but Winnie’s family too. And, really, Winnie’s daughter Rachel has enough drama going on in her life already. Her husband had a debilitating accident that left him unable to work full time, putting a huge strain on the family’s finances and their marriage.
This was an admirable debut novel. Tedrowe had three narrators of varying ages, genders, and circumstances: Avery, Rachel, and Winnie. The three of them were not even related by blood, although they did all have a connection through Jerry. Tedrowe was able to keep the three narrators distinct and yet interwoven. All of the characters were well-written and realistic, as well as relate-able.
Although the novel was well-written and well-crafted, something about it failed to absolutely wow me. It may have just been me, since I really can’t place my finger on it, but it just didn’t grab me in the way I was hoping it would. It was a character-driven novel, rather than a plot-driven novel and I was interested in the characters, but I didn’t love them enough to get completely caught up in their lives.
I liked this well enough that I will be on the lookout for Tedrowe’s next book and I would recommend this to people looking for a well-written, character-driven novel, but it isn’t my favorite thing I read this year.
I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour. Check out some of the other tour hosts for more reviews. Links go to the host’s site, not to their specific review.
If you posted an audiobook review today, Monday June 21st, please leave your link in the Mr. Linky before midnight Central time (US) and you will be eligible to win a prize.
Synopsis:
In Beck’s first book, “Expecting Adam,” she told the story of her chaotic second pregnancy while she and her husband were in graduate school at Harvard. I was fascinated by the story she was telling, until she started feeling mystical presences everywhere, then the book gave me a major case of the eye rolls. This memoir comes after “Expecting Adam” chronologically and details their move back to Utah to be nearer her family and away from the anti-family culture they felt pervaded at Harvard in the 80s.
Beck and her husband were both Mormons and, in fact, Beck’s father is a big deal Mormon scholar. When the two of them returned to Utah, they both quickly got jobs at BYU, but both of them also began to feel the pressure of the church censoring what they taught – or at least strongly suggesting that they stay within certain lines in their teaching. Both of them begin bumping up against those lines set by the church and,eventually, Martha begins to feel inexplicably ill, until she has a revelation about her past that changes both of their lives.
Thoughts on the story:
Beck tells her story in “Leaving the Saints” in a very fitting format. She alternates between a scene in a hotel room in which she is confronting her father about something – we don’t find out what until some way into the book – and a chronological telling of the rest of her story. She actually starts with her marriage in the temple, glazes over their time in Harvard, and then goes more in depth as she moves into their return to Utah. I appreciated that she was relatively respectful of Mormonism – or at least of Mormons – despite her personal problems and issues with the religion. For instance, she was relatively reserved as far as sharing most of the rituals of the marriage rites, which are supposed to be sacred and secret. Now, I’d understand completely if people inside the Mormon church didn’t fully agree with me about her respect because things are obviously different when something is directed at something else near and dear to your heart, but I felt like she tried to be respectful of Mormons-as-people even though she had problems with the political structure of the church.
I did have a little bit of trouble with the memories that Beck uncovered. I didn’t want to be that person who just didn’t believe her but, at the same time, it was just the way she remembered. She was living more or less happily in ignorance then – bam! – uncovered repressed memories. The evidence she presented for her memories made total sense, but the sudden and complete nature of the memory retrieval that seemed…odd…to me. It brought up my own memories of the eye roll-inducing moments in “Expecting Adam,” which probably made it all the more suspect for me. Even so, I decided to suspend judgement and just let Beck tell me her story as she wanted to.
Thoughts on the audio production:
Martha Beck narrated her own story in “Leaving the Saints.” At first, I thought this was an extremely bad decision by her publisher, because her voice drove me absolutely insane. It was scratchy and rough and did not make for a very good listening experience. However, I do think it ended up working in favor of the story because, as things got more and more personal and painful, it was very moving to have her narrating. Even so, I’m glad it was a short audio – under 5 hours – because I’m not sure I could have take her voice much longer.
Overall:
If you are interested in Beck’s story of coming to terms with difficulties in the religion she was born into, then the audio could be a good way to go. Just make sure you are willing to to go through a little auditory annoyance to get the added value of having the author tell you her own story.
Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Audio/Print*
Amazon: Audio/Print*
This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
bermudaonion (Kathy)
Beth F
Sandy
Stephanie
Michelle
Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
The Dark Rose 
Commuters
I read this book as part of a 
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