Ashley Warlick

ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Mary Frances invites him to dine with her husband, a husband that likely was never invited himself. Based in 1934, Mary Frances has found a desire to write and a desire to love, two things most lacking in her current relationship. Leaning on Tim for support, Mary Frances finds herself first published as M.F.K. Fisher and soon after involved in an extramarital affair. Soon all three show more are involved in the arrangement, leaving lasting effects on their careers, their families, and their lives.

With beautiful prose and historical accuracy, Ashley Warlick weaves the tale of M.F.K. Fisher in The Arrangement. Warlick manages to take away the distaste that comes with affairs and tell the story of Mary Frances' emotionally lacking marriage to Al and ever-growing fondness for their family friend, Tim. As the title suggests, this book explains the arrangement Mary Frances has with her husband, her lover, and her writing life. Like many other literary fictions out right now, The Arrangement tells the fictionalized story of an author, M.F.K. Fisher, a well known American food writer. The life of Mary Frances is compelling, she traveled often and was a true lover of food, but this novel fails to bring to life Mary Frances and her essays and instead focuses on her extramarital relationship alone. It takes ages to reach the arrangement and unfortunately the unraveling marriage fails to evoke the emotions one would usually feel during the loss of love. I initially enjoyed The Arrangement, I wanted to learn how Mary Frances began her writing career, and the curiosity of her affair grabbed my attention, however this novel failed to deliver. Full of moments of great importance, the slow development and lack of emotion makes this book read more like an informational essay than a romanticized account.

I am a lover of words, I enjoy when an author is a quality literary writer, but then there is over the top and The Arrangement is just that, over the top. The prose is gorgeous, but it also takes away from the overall story. I felt more like I was taking in the details of what was going on around Mary Frances than I was living life as her. There are beautiful descriptions of foods, of clothing, of the faces of the characters around her, but I never felt any emotion. What started as intriguing soon grew tedious for me and I had to consciously keep myself from skimming pages. There was also no distinct voice; the changing POV's, and changing times, made for a confusing story line that I couldn't date easily. I found myself confused and disconnected from the narrative, further pulling me from the story of Mary Frances and her evolving relationship and subsequent arrangement.

While lacking the emotive writing M.F.K. Fisher put into her own essays, Warlick delivers a successful historical fiction about Mary Frances and her hunger, her hunger for life and love. show less

When Lindy's sister, June, is violently murdered in Charlotte, N.C., Lindy steals June's infant son, ducks out on her own upcoming marriage and runs off to Galveston, Tex., to her grandmother's abandoned home, where she hopes to recapture the idyllic atmosphere of the childhood she and her sister shared. Before she leaves Charlotte, Lindy has already lost her job as a nurse, and on the trip she is determined to jettison as much as she can: "leave behind being a daughter, a wife, a nurse, a show more good person." But this is more than a simple journey or escape, because Lindy, who soon discovers she is pregnant with her fianc?'s child, meets up with Orrin, a childhood friend, now a gardener like his father. Out of dense, elegiac, occasionally self-conscious prose, Warlick fashions a mythic world. Lindy's grandmother, Esther, lives in a senior home, playing midnight bowling games and partaking of genteel cocktail service. Lindy stays in Esther's empty house, which is surrounded by a phantasmagoric garden with hedges, vines and vegetation forming secret rooms and lush places to hide, And on Orrin's father's farm, an ark is being built that will protect Lindy's loved ones from the devastation of a roiling hurricane. Deep secrets are unearthed in this multilayered, powerful tale, as bonds between family members, lovers, and friends are questioned and strengthened. With wisdom beyond her years, Warlick shows how passionate love is tempered by heart-wrenching responsibility. show less

I didn't really give this novel a chance, as I listened through the night and missed parts. But Cassandra Campbell's beautiful reading was alluring. She has a husky sexy voice, which injected the sparkle that the cover blurb claims for the novel.

Otherwise, there is the feeling that it is a slow boat to China - it doesn't move along in a way that would warrant the moniker "dazzling"! There are enticing passages rather than a sustained captivation of the reader.

I didn't realise that Mary show more Francis was a real person, and now that I do, I see the novel as more important than I had - and that in the 30s, her actions in trying for love, would have been brave and unusual.

In the last part of the novel there were such moving passages I was brought to tears. We have followed the Mary Francis's love affair with Tim from the start, and (spoiler alert) now he is dying. It was a great love affair. Tim is worthy of a romantic novel he is such a devoted lover. As a counterpoint, it was interesting to witness the relationship with her first husband - they loved each other throughout their lives, but during their marriage they weren't necessarily good for each other, ie happy within the relationship - so sad! I'm not so sure if it was his character, or that they didn't have fire or tenderness between them.

It was impressive how Mary Francis was prepared to risk what she had with her husband and take the lead in having an affair with Tim, who was so much more giving - someone with whom you could be happy. show less

This is a lovely story about a young woman named Lindy Jain. Precise and practical, her neatly organized world is suddenly shattered by the murder of her older sister, June. Lindy slowly loses her battle to cope with her grief. She is unable to grasp how her happy life must somehow make room for death. In desperation she flees. She leaves her job, her house, her fiancé and her devastated family. She takes the only thing of her sister’s still left on earth- June’s young son- a baby not show more even a year old.
Through the heat of a southern summer Lindy drives from Charlotte to Galveston, seeking refuge in the abandoned house of an ailing grandmother. There she creates a space for herself and the baby that is off the map and out of time- a non-existence in which grief can be held at bay. Through the hot months of July and August Lindy lives on borrowed time, a ghost of herself, until a new found romance brings her back into the world. It is the wise love of a younger man that helps Lindy become solid again. Step by careful step she rebuilds the severed connections to her former life, love and sorrow triumphing over despair.
Ashley Warlick’s ability to sink her readers into the depths of her characters is outstanding. She can evoke the pull of family or the importance of childhood playgrounds in a few short well-crafted sentences. Her talent and craftsmanship earned her awards for her first novel, The Distance from the Heart of Things. The Summer After June is equally well done- a beautiful book about the redemptive power of grief and love. There are scenes worth crying for, and scenes that will fill your heart. Don’t wait for a snowstorm to read The Summer After June. It is a book for any season. show less