Sarina Bowen

I dragged my feet a bit before reading Steadfast, as it features a hero just released from prison in Bittersweet. Jude was in prison for driving under the influence of opioids, resulting in a fatal car crash. The victim? His long-term girlfriend's brother. And, since Bowen writes ANGST, the heroine's dad is the Chief of Police. I won't give spoilers, but I will say that I loved this book, despite my concerns and the ample content warnings below.

I live in an area of New Hampshire where we show more find needles on the playground, where break-ins are widespread, where foreclosed houses are gutted of copper pipes because addicts can sell the pipe to scrap metal dealers. There's nothing romantic about drug addiction, or about the intense, never-ending process of recovery. But... Sarina Bowen writes characters who make you cry, laugh, and love right along with them. In the hands of someone else, I could see this story not working. I wouldn't have been willing to take the risk, if I'm honest. But she pulled it off, and I managed to love Jude and Sophie more than I thought possible.

Sophie and Jude meet and interact at a church supper, the same church where Jude attends AA meetings
The Shipley family (from Book 1) plays a big role in Jude's recovery, being the big warm hug that they are
Sophie's family is somehow worse than Jude's addiction? No spoilers, but eeep
Content warnings: drugs, physical/emotional/verbal abuse directed at the heroine (from her father), police abuse of power show less

Eu costumo dizer que a cada novo livro dessa série eu me apaixono um pouquinho mais por ela e pela escrita da autora. A Bess se tornou uma das minhas personagens favoritas dessa temática, estou acostumada a ver personagens principais que até conhecem o esporte mas dificilmente gostam tanto ao ponto de acompanhar tudo. E a Bess é exatamente assim, inclusive meu coração ficou quentinho ao ver ela lutando em prol da modalidade feminina do hockey, outro assunto pouco visto nos livros que show more conheço. O Tank não fica muito para trás, um personagem com uma carga emocional muito forte que ninguém imagina o que passou devido ao jeito fechado dele. Eu amei ver o desenvolvimento deles apesar de o relacionamento ter iniciado anos antes do livro, mas principalmente o desenvolvimento do Tank com o time já que o mesmo saiu de um time mega tóxico e foi para um que era o completo oposto. Como sempre, a Sarina conseguiu se superar na escrita e nos trouxe um livro leve e ao mesmo tempo tão emocional, mal posso esperar pelo próximo! show less

Wow! Just wow! I don't read a lot of Young Adult but love Sarina Bowen (she's an autobuy for me) so picked up this book. The characters were amazing and there was so much emotion in this book. I was tearing up in the first chapter and my emotions were strong throughout the whole book.

Rachel was a great character. I saw a lot of my teenage self in her (as a rule follower). Some of the scenes and discussions were so relevant - including the pressure a young woman feels to have sex and the show more conversations that need to happen with young men on consent.

Rachel develops so much in the book and it is exciting to see her growth. show less

Rowan Gallagher is a talented architect and devoted single mother who has landed the commission of her career — restoring the historic Wincott Mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. She should be on top of the world. Instead she's nursing a breakup with her ex Tim, which has devolved into the particularly humiliating habit of tracking his location on her phone and narrating his social life to herself from her couch. One night, fed up, she leashes her dog and heads to the waterfront show more spot where his phone says he is. She isn't going to do anything. She just wants to see.
She finds him dead in his car, shot. Rowan becomes the first witness on the scene — and immediately the primary suspect. As if that weren't enough, she quickly discovers that Tim had been secretly investigating her before his death, gathering detailed information about her job, her past, and people in her life. The investigation pulls Rowan deeper into the Wincott family's dark history and the mansion's unsettling reputation — the building has a ghost story attached to it, and the family's secrets run deep. Told from multiple perspectives: Rowan in first person, her sixteen-year-old daughter Natalie in third, and a historical thread following Coralie, a young secretary who worked for a predatory man decades ago. Rowan's ex-partner Harrison has just been released from prison and wants back into Natalie's life, which adds a further complicated layer.

[May contain spoilers]
Coralie's storyline is set roughly twenty-five years in the past and gradually reveals its connection to the present-day Wincott family history — she appears to be the source of the mansion's ghost legend, and her story involves abuse by a member of the Wincott family, with a child whose parentage is deliberately obscured. The modern mystery and the historical thread converge in the final act. The ending has a touch of the supernatural in how Coralie's story resolves. The romance thread with a new love interest runs alongside the murder investigation.
What I think: This is propulsive, multi-timeline domestic thriller with a great Maine setting and an architect protagonist doing interesting work with a haunted mansion — the Coralie thread adds welcome Gothic atmosphere. The multiple POV structure is well-handled. Maine location gives it automatic appeal, and the historic mansion mystery is genuinely atmospheric. show less