CF Frizzell

This one was a hard one to get through. I really liked the idea. It's about a flipper, Maggie, who buys an old home on Nantucket to turn it into a B&B and then lives there while she gets the business up and running enough to sell it off. Meanwhile, Ellis is an employee of the Steamship Authority that does the ferries back and forth to Nantucket as well as being a lifer on the island. They meet through Maggie's dog (who totally steals the show, everyone's hearts, and the novel), and from there they embark on a back and forth sort of relationship. Which isn't helped by the fact that both women have secrets, although Maggie's (the fact that she's a flipper) is definitely the bigger of the two.

I wish I'd liked the book more than I did. It was alright, but not amazing. I could never really bring myself to care about either of the characters. And all the characters seemed so defensive about, everything. I also didn't really like a lot of the inner monologue that was happening. Even though technically stuff in the narrative was being 'shown' and not told, because of how much of the inner stuff was put onto the page it still seemed like I was being told everything instead of shown.

I did think that the 'feel' of Nantucket/New England/Massachusetts was very well done. (Yes, woo to 2004 (and 2007 and 2013), and boo to Big Papi being retired. Heh.)

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (plus d'informations)

The book was mostly about Stick McLaughlin's journey through life. But, it also chronicled parts of the lives of Ellie, Stick's close, close friend, and Jersey, Zim, and Roxie, who were also friends of Stick at various points in her life.

The novel has three parts. One that starts in 1918 (Go Red Sox!) when Stick is a sixteen year old kid in Boston. She gets into all sorts of trouble (The good sort, and the very, very bad sort). She also has to go on the lam because of crooked cops. And we get introduced to Ellie, her best friend from when they were very little, as well as a short intro (very short) to Jersey, Roxie, and Zim.

The second part takes place in 1924. Stick's a maid for a mother and daughter in Gardner, MA (I won't spoil why, but I did think that these two parts really flowed very well together, even with the time jump).

Then the third part jumps ahead again to 1927. I thought that this jump was a bit more abrupt, but I was enough invested in the story by then that it didn't throw me off too too much, just a little. Stick is back in Boston, and a lot, a whole lot, has changed for her (although not her close friends).

Overall I liked the novel. At times the narrative was a bit plodding, but it was also wicked nicely plotted. (I had to do it, it was set in Boston so very well, and a review of it without the word wicked used in the way only us semi-crazy New Englanders use it had to be done).

The three parts and the three names she used in these parts gave Stick's journey such a great path to follow, an overarching feel to the novel. But then in each of the parts you had some of the same people running through them and making sure all three parts felt connected even as Stick changed and grew.

It was a good book, and a fun read that made me think a little.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (plus d'informations)