Diane Munier

Diane Munier's writing and style is just gorgeous.

Her stories connect.

The characters make you feel down to your marrow.

You are pulled to your childhood while Diane has you crying and laughing while she fillets your heart....only fill it with a cadence of words you'll remember for days and sew you up forever changed.

Not enough good things to say. Full review to come.

I really enjoyed this book. Hilly Grunier plods along in life with an alcoholic, abusive father who doesn't really seem to know she exists, and with a mother who is mentally ill. She is and has been in love with Danny Boyd for years. Danny is good for Hilly. With him she learns to be stronger than what she thought she was. She learns her family's secrets and decides to let them make her into a better person. The author did a wonderful job of creating the time period and the characters. You show more feel the tension of the time with all the racial tension, the Vietnam War, the hippies and free love. She gives you characters that are so well drawn that you can't help but hate some of them. Hilly's father was a real piece of work. I hated him from the beginning. I understood part of what shaped him, yet I could not forget the way he let his hatred of her mother and Naomi cloud his opinion of Hilly. I think I realized how strong my feelings were when he tried to get to move out of the house. This author has a way of weaving the feeling through the writing that makes it almost poetic. I will be reading and reviewing her book Me and Mom Fall For Spencer in a week and now that I've read this one I can't wait to start on it.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own. show less

I love books that combine mystery and romance. That is what this book does. This is not a boy meets girl and they fall in love immediately type of book. They both are carrying some baggage with them that makes their relationship take time to develop. I really didn't like Sarah's mom too much. She just seemed over the top dramatic. The old man who lived across the street from Sarah had a son. He moved out leaving the old man living in the chaos and filth he'd been living in for quite some show more time. I loved the way that Sarah took charge and "told" him what was going to happen and then ignored him and did it anyway. Sarah was one of those people who had to fix and care for everyone else when she herself needed fixing. This was a strange but interesting book. I've enjoyed reading books by this author.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own. show less