GILDED MOUNTAIN by Kate Manning

Sylvie Pelletier is a 17-year-old in 1907, living in a Colorado mining community where the workers, including her father, desperately need to unionize.  The work is dangerous, and the pay is miniscule, when the Company actually deigns to pay the workers at all.  Sylvie catches a break when she lands a job in town with the local newspaper, owned by K.T. Redmond, who has no qualms about telling the truth.  Because she speaks French, Sylvie then lands a summer job at the home of the mine’s owner, Duke Padgett, and gets a first-hand glimpse of how the other half lives.  K.T.’s advice?  Take notes.  Even as she develops a crush on Jasper, the Padgett heir, Sylvie becomes a valuable information source for K.T.  The content of this novel is largely serious, focusing on the deplorable conditions at the mine, but sometimes the author provides some much-appreciated comic relief, particularly in the witty banter between Sylvie and union organizer, George Lonahan.  On page 367, George makes this cheeky comment about the mining company president, whose name the miners jokingly mispronounce among themselves as “Bowels:”

“’Today Bowles made the union an offer of air and threw in daylight as a bonus.’”

Sylvie enjoys some wordplay of her own, inventing the word “underdonkey” and adding her own unspoken comment in a conversation with George on page 359:

“’Hackles!’  He slapped his thigh. ‘You’re a stitch, Sylvie Pelletier.’

I was a stitch.  A dropped stitch, which results in a great unraveling.”

Speaking of stitches, Sylvie can’t help laughing at George’s jokes, and neither could I.  At times this novel feels like a Cinderella story, and I could have done without the hints of future tragedies on the horizon.  Sometimes I think authors, including this one, convey a sense of foreboding as a way to soften the blow when the hammer eventually falls.  I would prefer to be surprised, especially by bad news.  Sylvie herself, however, is what makes this novel special.  She occasionally falters in the common sense department, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, but her commitment to justice, particularly for the underdonkey, never wavers.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton narrates this engaging novel in a conversational tone as she negotiates her grief over the death of her beloved husband, David, while at the same time dealing with her ex-husband, William, who is in an emotional crisis.  William is blindsided when his wife leaves him abruptly, shortly after giving him a DNA kit that reveals information about his mother’s history, which stuns him even more.  He coaxes Lucy into accompanying him on a trip to Maine to investigate his roots, and she obliges, despite the fact that the trip’s purpose is somewhat nebulous. She becomes his sounding board for his various grievances and his intermediary for an awkward meeting with a long-lost relative whose existence proves that William’s mother, Catherine, was no saint. Lucy and William both adored Catherine, but as her past unfolds during the trip, I was puzzled as to why.  I devoured this novel and love Strout’s writing, but William and his mother do not come off as lovable at all.  I can only surmise that Lucy’s own escape from unfathomable poverty caused her to be overly deferential to William and especially to his mother, who regularly introduced Lucy to friends as someone who had “come from nothing.”  This condescension did not really bother Lucy, although I found it abhorrent, until she uncovers the secret of Catherine’s own upbringing.   As for William, he accuses Lucy of being self-absorbed, but he is far worse in that department and extremely needy, without being the least bit sympathetic to Lucy’s grief.  When one of Lucy and William’s grown daughters asks Lucy if she and William are getting back together, I could only think, “Please, no!”

WRITERS & LOVERS by Lily King

Casey is a 31-year-old aspiring writer with crushing student loan debts that she acquired after blowing off a golf scholarship.  Barely keeping the creditors at bay, she waits tables at a posh Boston restaurant, where she meets Oscar, a charming, established author who is a dozen or so years her senior.  Oscar, whose wife died of cancer, is now the single parent of two ridiculously delightful boys.  Casey is grieving as well, as the death of her mother a year ago under weird circumstances seems to have fueled Casey’s panic attacks.  Meanwhile, Casey is also stringing Silas along.  He is an aspiring writer himself and falls more in her age bracket and peer group.  While she has an embarrassment of riches in the romance department, her already precarious financial situation takes a nosedive; she loses her job, learns that the space she rents is about to be sold, and discovers a possible cancerous lump.  This confluence of bad news would drive anyone to panic attacks, and writing is the balm that soothes her.  Plus, she eventually has to choose between the two men in her life.  She and Oscar’s lively and witty banter, not to mention his adorable sons, made me root for him, but she lusts after Silas in a completely different way, and he seems almost as broken as she is.  Bottom line:  I loved everything about this novel—the characters, the writing, and the storyline, which starts to fizzle near the end but then bursts into flower.  I did not expect that this book could top Euphoria, but this book has more heart and a more endearing cast.

THE PLEASING HOUR by Lily King

Nineteen-year-old Rosie, an American, has been hired as an au pair by a French couple, Marc and Nicole.  We learn early in the novel that she has given her infant daughter to her sister, but the details do not surface until much later.  We also know that her tenure with Marc and Nicole is relatively short-lived, as the timeline bounces between Rosie’s time with them and her later role as caretaker of Lucie, an elderly woman who knew Nicole as a child.  The two mysteries—that of Rosie’s baby and that of her departure from Marc and Nicole’s household—unfold in a dreamy manner, as we learn not just of Rosie’s background but of Nicole’s as well.  Both women’s histories are a little sketchy, however, and their complex personalities are most vivid during the pages in which they live together but never wholly warm up to one another.  Marc is also a very central character, although we learn almost nothing about his past.  That omission is obviously intentional, as we are left to draw our own conclusions about his real character.  Is he a man of integrity and substance, or is he not what he seems?  Rosie’s mistakes in life are plain to see, as both of the novel’s mysteries revolve around unfortunate decisions on her part.  Marc, however, is an enigma, as is the title.

PEOPLE PERSON by Candice Carty-Williams

If there’s one thing I like less in a book than bad writing, it’s a silly plot.  This book reminds me of Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, and maybe it’s no coincidence that both have the word “people” in the title.  Here we have five half-siblings (same father, four different mothers) trying to dispose of a body that wasn’t really dead.  After this wacky incident, the story improves somewhat but not enough.  Dimple (a ridiculous name in a ridiculous plot) is the half-sibling whose ex-boyfriend Kyron slips and cracks his head open after he tries to strangle Dimple.  She scratches his face in an effort to slip out of his grasp and fears that those scratches will mark her as a murderer.  She then enlists the assistance of her four half-siblings, whom she has met only once, and they all reach the unlikely agreement that they should wrap Kyron in a tarp and bury him at a construction site.  After Kyron comes back to life, he attempts to blackmail Dimple, not knowing that she had four accomplices.  I get that this is supposed to be a feel-good story about family members coming together, but I would have liked a less ludicrous crisis as a catalyst to their bonding.  Plus, Dimple’s role as a social media influencer just makes her that much more of a caricature rather than a robust character.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

A SLOW FIRE BURNING by Paula Hawkins

Someone has slashed Daniel Sutherland’s throat.  Miriam, who lives in the houseboat next to his, discovers the body.  As it turns out, Daniel was not a nice guy, and several people may have wished him dead.  The police suspect Laura, as she was seen, covered in blood, leaving Daniel’s place the morning of his murder.  However, Daniel’s family members raise our suspicions as well.  His Aunt Carla and her ex-husband, Theo, lost their 3-year-old son fifteen years ago while Carla’s alcoholic sister, Angela, was babysitting.  The toddler fell to his death from Angela’s balcony while Daniel was still a child, and forgiveness has been hard to come by.  Angela preceded Daniel in death by just a few weeks, presumably as a result of a fall, so that we can eliminate her as a suspect.  Miriam’s best friend Lorraine was brutally murdered when the two girls were abducted as teenagers, and Laura has issues with anger management, due to a brain injury she suffered as a child.  In the middle of all these deaths and traumatic injuries is Irene, who befriends Laura, and Laura can definitely use a friend.  I liked this novel so much better than The Girl on the Train.  The plot is easy to follow, and most of the characters who are not dead have some redeeming qualities.  All of the women, except poor Angela, are pretty feisty.  Laura’s occasional violent outbursts mostly seem warranted as self-defense, while Miriam lives with survivor’s guilt, wondering if she should have made an effort to save Lorraine.  Irene almost goes too far in trying to solve the various mysteries at hand on her own.  Confrontation with possible murderers is never a good idea, but Irene uses her reputation as a silly old woman to good effect.

A TOWN CALLED SOLACE by Mary Lawson

Three main characters inhabit this novel—Clara, Liam, and Elizabeth, each of whom headlines the chapters.  Clara is eight years old, and her 16-year-old sister Rose has disappeared after one of many arguments with her mother.  Clara spends her time in a vigil by the window, awaiting Rose’s return, and taking care of her nextdoor neighbor’s cat, Moses.  That neighbor, Elizabeth, is now deceased, and Liam Kane, her heir, has moved into Elizabeth’s house.  His presence is puzzling to Clara, since her parents have chosen not to burden her with the news of Elizabeth’s death.  This novel makes a good case for not sheltering children from this kind of news, because not only does their secrecy erode Clara’s trust in her parents, but she initially mistakes Liam for a burglar.  Liam is not, in fact, Elizabeth’s son, but Elizabeth became very attached to him after her five miscarriages when he desperately needed parental love.  He was a neighbor’s son whose mother focused all of her energy on two sets of twin girls and found Liam to be an annoying and difficult burden.  Elizabeth was more than happy to take up the slack and look after Liam as frequently as his mother would allow.  A catastrophic mistake on Elizabeth’s part ended her relationship with Liam and his family, but she resumes contact with him after he is an adult.  He is now going through a divorce, has quit his accounting job, and has moved into Elizabeth’s house.  This novel bears some resemblance to Anne Tyler’s books in that it takes place in a small town with no real villains.  However, I found this book to be much more engaging, particularly with the intrigue and anguish surrounding the missing Rose.  My favorite character, however, is not one of the main three but rather Moses, the elusive cat.  I particularly love this sentence in the book, from page 188:

“She [Clara] fed Moses and then sat on the floor and watched him turn himself into triangles and squares and circles inside boxes until Mr. Kane stuck the key in the lock, whereupon Moses turned himself into a cat again and skedaddled.”