Helpful Score: 6
Hands down the best women's fiction book I've read in a long time. It will break your heart, and it will soothe your heart. I wanted to hug this book and not let go. Highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 1
I'm so charged up emotionally right now since I just finished this book!
I can't stop thinking about the unforgettable love between Isabelle and Robert, flawlessly told in alternate chapters during 1939 and present day. This is such a beautiful, heart wrenching, sad love story with a surprise ending I didn't see coming. All I can say, is read this book and keep the tissues nearby.
I can't stop thinking about the unforgettable love between Isabelle and Robert, flawlessly told in alternate chapters during 1939 and present day. This is such a beautiful, heart wrenching, sad love story with a surprise ending I didn't see coming. All I can say, is read this book and keep the tissues nearby.
Helpful Score: 1
Julie Kibler's debut novel tackles many themes common to Southern fiction: race relations; interracial marriage; family secrets; and unexpected friendship. The story is split between a present-day road trip from Arlington, Texas, to Cincinnati for 30-something Dorrie and almost-90 Isabelle, and a flashback to Isabelle's coming of age in the 1930s. Of particular interest is an explanation of the "sundown" law in Isabelle's small Kentucky town which prohibited blacks in town after dark. Interestingly, these laws were in no way limited to just the South but were found as far west as California in the 1930s. I like the way this book compared and contrasted race relations between Isabelle's "then" and Dorrie and Isabelle's "now," but - at the same time - there was something lacking for me and I never felt fully engaged. Despite this sentiment, I believe Julie Kibler is a fine writer and I look forward to reading her future books.
I found this book engaging and it captivated me early on. The technique of having two story lines of two time periods going through the voices of two women from two generations was an interesting way of handling the themes in this book. You felt like you were on the road trip with these women - a welcome audience to both their tales.
The characters were believable and the story lines (while likely a stretch for most of us) are undoubtedly true to life for some. While one woman's story is utterly heartbreaking, it is that very story that puts the other's in perspective and informs the other of its solutions. This is subtle throughout, but by the end, it is obvious that this is the value of the book. That one story that appears completely unredeemable, is the very thing, in the end, that redeems the other. And in doing so, redeems itself.
The themes in the book (inter-racial relationships, forbidden love, racial inequities and abuses, failed marriage, broken people) are told honestly and with rawness, but without crudity - or worse inappropriate responses to the time periods depicted.
I'm glad I read it and I look forward to future books this author may write. And don't pass on reading the short author interview at the back of the book. I almost did, but it was insightful and worth reading.
The characters were believable and the story lines (while likely a stretch for most of us) are undoubtedly true to life for some. While one woman's story is utterly heartbreaking, it is that very story that puts the other's in perspective and informs the other of its solutions. This is subtle throughout, but by the end, it is obvious that this is the value of the book. That one story that appears completely unredeemable, is the very thing, in the end, that redeems the other. And in doing so, redeems itself.
The themes in the book (inter-racial relationships, forbidden love, racial inequities and abuses, failed marriage, broken people) are told honestly and with rawness, but without crudity - or worse inappropriate responses to the time periods depicted.
I'm glad I read it and I look forward to future books this author may write. And don't pass on reading the short author interview at the back of the book. I almost did, but it was insightful and worth reading.
I disagree with the reviewer who found the plot "predictable." Although there was a bit of foreshadowing of how things might turn out, I was totally surprised and blown away by the ending. A wonderful read - and I'd highly recommend it!
Not my general type of book but it was very good. The last 4 chapters were excellent. Ms Kibler built the anticipation of the ending up through out the book. Very well done for a debut book. Highly recommend.
