Darcie Chan

There's not a single word wasted in this story about reclusive Mary McAllister and how her life intertwined with the people of Mill River. I liked the way Mary’s life story, including the cause of her social anxiety, alternated with chapters about the present day townspeople, many with their own vulnerabilities and peculiarities. This book is a little bit suspenseful, pleasantly romantic but just a tad too sweet and superficial for my taste.

The setup of the novel held promise. The central character is a woman suffering from a severe anxiety disorder. She also was permanently disfigured by an abusive husband. Alone, in her grand house on the hill, she watches the town below her, and becomes involved in the lives of the residents there, but from a distance. Her contact with the outside world is practically nil, except for a local priest who has the odd habit of stealing spoons.

On the whole, I found this book somewhat maudlin. I'd show more hoped to be more drawn into characters that held promise in the descriptive blurb, and to find depth in the the nooks and crannies of Mill River. As it was, there was a heavy-handedness gave away each plot revelation far before I'd even started to wonder what would happen, so that the by the end of the book, I was just waiting for the characters to get on with it. The nurse educator in me felt this could have been an opportunity to educate about anxiety disorders, which can be life crippling. Instead, there was more of focus on Mary being set up for life, financially, and never having to want for anything, than on overcoming her disability. I found myself thinking over and over how different her life could have been, without taking away from her charitable efforts, if someone had been able to get her the kind of help that could have given her the strength to combat her fears.

Whenever I receive a book from an outside source, or from a debut author, I try to give it an honest review of what I thought. And, hope that review will be positive. sometimes it's not. I think there is an audience for this sort of book, though, I am not the correct one. However, I am extremely thankful to Random House for sending this book to me and for introducing me to the Random House Reader's Circle. And to Ms Chan, should she read this review, please keep writing. Not everyone nails it for all readers, especially on the first try. You had an idea, a story, and a vision, and pulled it together. That's more than most people can do. Apparently enough people liked this book as an ebook when it was self published for a major house to take it on, and I see you have a sequel that comes out in August. Goodonya! I wish you and Mill River, VT well. show less

For only $.99 on Kindle, I have to admit that I didn't really expect too much out of this book...but, Darcie Chan, I sincerely apologize for jumping to conclusions.

This story of the life of a woman with severe social anxiety disorder was amazing. The richness and depth of all of the characters--from Mary, the woman suffering with s.a.d. to her friend, the priest, and the town policeman--they were all wonderful!

I felt that I knew each and every one of the townspeople as Ms. Chan wove her show more magic.

A great book. Highly recommended. show less

Josie DiSanti moves after losing her husband in a fire that burned down the house to the little town of Mill River with her two small children, Rose, and Emily, to live with her aunt Ivy. As they grown up the girls are inseparable but a terrible accident tears them apart. Years later they return to the town for the reading of their mother’s testament. They learn that Josie will do anything to reconcile her two daughters. The sisters must move into neighboring houses during the summer and show more work together to find Josie’s safe deposit box which contains their inheritance...

I got a chance to read Darcie Chen's “The Mill River Redemption”, her second book after “The Mill River Recluse”. I have not read the first book, but I don’t feel that you need to, even though I must say I am a bit tempted.

This is not the usual book I go for. But I felt intrigued when I read what the book was about. About a small little town, a town where everyone knows everyone and two sisters that have to return to fulfill their mother's last will to be able to inherit. But nothing is easy; they haven’t spoke to each other for years and something putting two people together that are angry with each other can cause blowups.

In the book, we follow Josie in the 1980-90s building a life for herself and her children parallel with her children as grownups coming back to town and trying to find the key to the safe deposit box. I liked it at the same time you get to know the people in the past you also get to know them as grownups and, in the end, the past story reveals why they are estranged.

Rose and Emily are very different, Rose is superficial and Emily is down to earth. And there we have my biggest problem with the book. Emily is the good and Rose the bad daughter. The story is written so you will feel for Emily always, it is she who got hurt, and it is she who always does the right thing. After a while, it feels like everything Rose does is to hurt everyone around here. Of course, it could be the alcohol talking, she is alcoholic, but I don’t buy it all the way. By always making it Rose’s fault then the book loses a bit of a credibility because not everyone is perfect and not everyone is bad. And I feel that the book had been better if they both had been portrayed with flaws instead of just Rose.

But besides that, I mostly enjoyed the book. It was a bit weird reading about Claudia and Kyle in the book, at first, I didn’t understand why there were chapters about their life in the middle of the story about Emily and Rose, but I figured that their story had something to do with the first book and I was right.

I received a free copy of this book from Brown Book Group in exchange for an honest review, thank you! I also want to thank Brown Book Group for letting me participate in the "The Mill River Redemption blog tour"! show less