Another good book by Alice Hoffman. The characters have a lot of depth and are brought to life with her vivid words. Her writing style in this book is very descriptive and sometimes poetic. The way she describes love is so profound, it’s not the sort of description that is lengthy and you want to just skim over, no, it’s lyrical and holds your interest.

My distaste for March and my strong dislike for Hollis are established early on in this story. I hate how this woman treats her life so carelessly. There are times you just want to smack her for being so selfish! And Hollis, he is so revengeful and mean. There are times we feel sad for the little boy that he was but the grown man he becomes is shameful. Hank and Alan you just want to mother. Gwen you want to give a big hug and tell her how proud you are of her. Hoffman does a wonderful job in forming her characters and allowing us to see their past, their emotion, and even who they will become in the future. ( )

A very dark romance. The story is about a woman who returns to her hometown to attend a funeral and settle the estate of a dear friend. The return home awakens memories and feelings centered around her first love. She abandons all and sacrifices her marriage and daughter to rekindle her destructive romance with her past lover. The relationship nearly destroys all, herself included. A haunting read. ( )

This book was our book club read. Our group was divided with a few loving it and the rest thinking it was just ok. I was one of the few who loved it. Alice Hoffman's writing draws you in from the very first page. She writes in a way that she can describe a scene without saying the words. It is easy to see why she is one of author, Jodi Picoult's favorite writers. You can truly escape in her stories. Even though this story was depressing, sad, dark, cryptic, and frankly, without much hope for the characters, I still was riveted until the very last page. I could feel myself being drawn into the characters so much that when they were scared, I could feel my own chest tightening. Hoffman describes the feelings of power and control so well, from both perspectives, you can feel yourself right in the situation.
I had so many pages and quotes marked from this book, I just want to share a few with you:

"Is this how fates are made and futures cast? An idle choice, a windy day, a dog that can't mind his own business? Some people know the exact moment they lost everything. They can look back and see it plain as day and for the life of them can't understand why they didn't spot the situation as it was happening."

"Among men and women, those in love do not always announce themselves, with declarations and vows. but they are the ones who weep when you're gone. Who miss you every single night, especially when the sky is so deep and beautiful, and the ground so very cold."

"All over town tonight, the wind will drive women from their beds. They'll think of their first true love and search through their jewelry boxes for trinkets - gold lockets, ticket stubs, strands of hair. March would be one of those women, but instead she's here, on the road where there were once so many foxes. If truth be told, she's been here all this time, in their dark and windy place, like a ghost trapped inside the location of her memory."

Even though this book dealt with circumstances that most people would find sick or disgraceful, I found the story to be very believable. The subject matters were haunting and even though you didn't want to think about what you were reading, you couldn't stop turning the pages. I am curious to read other Hoffman novels and see more of her writings. I also realize this story isn't for everyone. ( )

True love may be made in Heaven, but learning how to live with it and
through it can sometimes be altogether different, here on earth. After
nineteen years in California March Murray and her teenaged daughter, Gwen,
come back to Fox Hill where March grew up, to see to the estate of the woman
who raised March. March has spent a lifetime trying to avoid and deny her
past, but coming home brings it all back into sharp focus. She confronts
the stranger that her brother has become, the whispers of rumors that run
through town, and Hollis, the boy she fell in love with when she was eleven
years old, and never really stopped waiting for. This is the story,
skillfully and subtly told, of what can happen when you finally get
everything you thought you ever wanted. It is a story of jealousy and
deceit, decay and degradation, courage and pain, woven by a master
storyteller. It unfolds as delicately and as slowly as the petals of a
rose, mesmerizing the reader to the point that you really don't notice the
thorns until it's too late to pull back.

Another excellent novel by Alice Hoffman. ( )

Zseniális, mint mindig. ( )