Maryann McFadden

This very appealing book features parallel stories by two female protagonists, one older and one younger.

Ruth Hardaway, age 64, owns a bookstore, “The Book Lover,” that barely squeaks by financially. Lucy Barrett, 39, is a first-time author trying to get a book published, who finally self-publishes, and gets rejected at first by everyone but Ruth.

The two women become good friends, and listen to each other’s problems both about the book industry and their romantic woes. Ruth even show more provides a place to live for Lucy at her old lake cottage, which is next door to a cottage occupied by her son Colin. Colin, who served in Iraq, is now a paraplegic, and Ruth likes the idea of someone out at the lake watching out for Colin.

Each of the two women has a couple of major flaws that are only superficially dissimilar. Ruth is totally other-directed and self-denying, to the point where her own happiness never gets priority. She has lied to others about her past because of her lack of self-esteem and tendency to blame herself for everything that has happened to her.

Lucy is totally focused on herself; it is difficult for her to see beyond her own needs or how she can use the needs of others to further her own agenda. She too has lied to others, but it is out of fear that no one would like or love her enough not to turn away from her if she told the truth.

Eventually, Ruth turns on Lucy for lying, and yet Ruth has been doing the same thing; not only do they stand to lose their own close relationship over this, but also the relationships they’ve been working so hard to establish with others.

Discussion: All the main characters in this book are damaged in some way, whether physically or psychologically, and yet all are quite likeable. All have both good points and bad, and even Jenny – Ruth’s daughter who sometimes drove me crazy – was the way she was only out of caring. The book was very much full of people just like in our real lives who are our good friends.

The story moves along at a relatively slow pace, taking its time to develop the characters, but never losing our interest along the way. It kind of reminded me of a Rosy Thornton book in that regard.

There is romance, and there are love scenes, but they are tasteful and even charming.

I loved the inclusion of older characters, particularly ones who were not ready to give up living. And I loved the sensitive treatment of veterans with PTSD as well as the portrait of Colin, a paraplegic who has moments of anger and frustration, but more and more frequently has moments that are characterized by courage, grace, and normalcy.

Evaluation: Well, okay, this is women’s fiction, and ordinarily I avoid it, but the promised combination of a bookstore owner and a book writer pulled me in, and I didn’t regret a minute of it. show less

Very good read about Tillie Smith, a poor young American woman who tried improving her life so she could help her family stay together. But her life was cut short. Rachel Miller, newly married to Adam, the cemetery keeper, connects with Tillie's sad story.

In doing so she finds her voice, her love and her future.

Sometimes you have to leave your life behind in order to finally find yourself. So it is for Joanna Harrison: perfect wife and mother of twenty-five years. Joanna finds herself at a crossroads in her life - after more than a dozen moves over the span of a twenty-five year marriage, she is lonely, bored, and tired of playing the role of a corporate wife.

Her children are grown and gone, her husband is more married to his job than he is to her, and now they're about to pack up once more. Joanna show more just can't take any more. Panicked at the thought of having to start all over again, she commits the first irresponsible act of her life. She runs away to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a place she has been to just once.

She finds a job as a live-in companion to Grace Finelli, a widow who has come to the island to fulfill a girlhood dream. Together the two women embark on the most difficult journey of their lives: Joanna struggling for independence, roots, and a future of her own, while her family tugs at her from afar; and Grace, choosing to live the remainder of her life for herself alone, knowing she may never see her children again.

Entwined is Paul Harrison's story as he loses his wife, his job, and in effect, everything that defines him as a man. He takes off on his own journey out west, searching for the answers to all that has gone wrong in his life. One thing remains constant: he wants his wife back. Joanna, however, is moving further away from her old life as she joins a group dedicated to rescuing endangered loggerhead turtles, led by a charismatic fisherman unlike anyone she's ever met.

This is Ms. McFadden's debut novel - a stunning story of three very different people, each changing their lives at a time when such transformations are usually long over. In my opinion, this book was delightful. I found myself quickly engrossed in the lives and various predicaments of the characters, rooting for them all to come through their own difficulties relatively unscathed. I give this book an A+! and look forward to reading Ms. McFadden's next book sometime in the future. show less

When this book came in the mail I wasn't at all sure about it. The cover's a bit too "romancey," the publisher's an unknown ... but then I started reading. Maryann McFadden's The Book Lover (Three Women Press, 2012) is about a struggling author who decides to self-publish her book, and about the bookseller at an independent bookstore ("The Book Lover") in a small New York town who enjoys the book and invites its author to come do a signing. I read it straight through, almost without a show more pause.

It's a harsh-but-fair (or "brutally honest", if you prefer) view of the publishing and independent bookselling industries today. The bookseller, Ruth, is facing hard times, rising costs, lower profits, new competition, and she's not getting any younger. The author, Lucy, has to work her tail off just to get her book into peoples' hands (after which most of them seem to like it fairly well). McFadden, who's published a pair of novels with Hyperion, writes in the acknowledgements that this book was almost didn't seen print because it made editors "uncomfortable," but that she forged ahead because she "wanted to tell the very real story of what it's like to be a writer and a bookseller in today's world."

While there are elements of the book that I liked slightly less than others, the main storyline, about the bookstore and those who love it, and about the importance of stores like The Book Lover to the larger community, was heartwarming and well done. show less