Skip to main content

Book Review: The Children by Ann Leary

Have you ever met a book you just wanted to hug? 

If you just nodded, we are soul mates. Because it does really happen. 

I listened to The Children by Ann Leary via Audible and it was like just listening to a dear friend tell a story... 


That is if you find yourself with a friend who is recluse lies about her life on a made up "mommy blog" sleeps with the groundskeeper and lives in her deceased step father's dilapidated house on the lake. 

Because you know, that happens a lot too. I just couldn't get enough and when the book ended, I instantly missed Charlotte. 

A story about an unconventional family with secrets and worries is my jam. I just loved all of the characters. Leary writes in a way that makes me feel like I've met new friends but also doesn't give it all away at the beginning. There is so much to absorb that you have to keep reading. 

Charlotte, her sister and mother all live in a rambling old house that once belonged to Charlotte's stepdad, who passed away. The house is wrapped up between Joan, his widow, and his 2 biological sons, Perry and Spin. The brothers don't need the house...but Joan's daughters, Charlotte and Sally, need it in a way that no one can quite grasp. They both struggle with pasts and fears that make it impossible to function in the real world. Sally and Charlotte are two of my favorite characters I have read about this year. Their struggles and inner demons are real and I felt myself nodding along because I recognize a lot of the same anxieties in myself.

Charlotte's romance with groundskeeper Everette is intriguing... and I love how they navigate their strange relationship.

When Spin brings his new fiancee to the house, there are many opinions among the family about her intentions. Some are nice...and some are far from it. Who's right? Will Laurel destroy the complicated yet complacent life Charlotte and her family have built? 

The backstories and honest observations from Charlotte create a great piece that you will want to keep reading.

Next up, I am listening to The Edge of the Orchard, by Terry Chevalier, a historical fiction piece about a pioneer family in the mid 1800s, navigating their life on unknown territory. 
I'm also currently reading Truly, Madly, Guilty at all hours of the night because insomnia. And though it's got my attention so far, it's not has "Oh my gosh, I can't put this down" as Big Little Lies  and The Husband's Secret but I am not giving up too soon. Also, how cute is this bookstragram? 


My local Hastings is going out of business so I picked up a nice little bookstack the other day: 


My life: So many books, so little couch time. Have you read any of my July/Aug reads? 

Happy Happy Reading, friends! 


Comments

  1. SMD @ lifeaccordingtostephAugust 5, 2016 at 9:25 AM

    Just added The Children to my want to read list!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LornaAugust 8, 2016 at 7:53 PM

      I am reading it now. You won't be disappointed.

      Delete
    2. LornaAugust 8, 2016 at 7:56 PM

      I am reading it now. You won't be disappointed.

      Delete
  2. Jessica at Booked JAugust 7, 2016 at 6:20 PM

    First, I'm SO intrigued by The Children. The way you describe it? Totally eye-catching. We could all use more books that are so good you just want to hug them.

    You've hooked me and I am itching to grab a copy, now.

    (Or, you know, soon. Hopefully. Fingers crossed!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. LornaAugust 8, 2016 at 7:55 PM

    What is another book similar to "The Children"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. LornaAugust 8, 2016 at 7:56 PM

    What is another book similar to "The Children"?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Girl On The Train

If you follow  top book lists, you've more than likely heard of The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins If you still have a book hangover from Gone Girl like I do, you'll be happy about this twisted story. It's gritty, mean, obsessive and dark, just like Amy Dunn. Although it didn't get my heart racing, (a little too vague at some points) it did have twists that left me stunned.    Rachel is an alcoholic. A sad, lonely woman who tortures herself by riding a train everyday and looking out the window at her ex-husband's house. The house that used to be theirs together, only now it's him inside with his new wife, and their baby. And she's just a girl on a train.  She watches them, knows they had a baby girl because of the new pink curtains in the window. She can see them laughing and playing on the patio. And even though it kills her, she still watches them every day. She even starts daydreaming about the lives of their neighbors, a happy...
15 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware always delivers when it comes to interesting and layered characters. The Turn of the Key is a thrilling account of Rowan Caine's experience as a live-in nanny in a luxurious smart home unlike anything she has ever seen. This mystery is the epitome of the saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" because even though moving into the home of the Elincourts is an upgrade from her tiny apartment and dead-end job, it comes at a steep price. Every chapter, there is something suspicious that kept me wondering if anyone in this suspenseful book was telling the truth. Which, is obvious in the first page because Rowan is writing a letter to a lawyer, from jail, because she's being held for murder. Who is Rowan? Did she come into the Elincourt's lives for a reason? She should have known something was wrong on the day she interviewed, when one of the children warned her to never come back. With a house full of surveillance cameras and parents who ar...
7 comments
Read more

Book Round Up: High School English Edition

You don't like to admit it, but we all know how much everyone loved SparkNotes.  Whether you just didn't want to, you couldn't find the time, or the subject matter was so over your head you couldn't cope, there were books in high school English class that you pretended to read, but actually didn't.  For me, as a bookworm now, I can't believe there were books I left unturned. Especially if people were telling me to read. Nowadays, I have to beg for time to read. I can't believe I ever passed up the chance to read when people were requiring it of me.  The books that I did read and will NEVER forget:  To Kill A Mockingbird Romeo & Juliet The Scarlett Letter  The Great Gatsby  The Lord of the Flies The Odyssey  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  The Giver  My Antonia  Books that I Didn't Actually Read: Great Expectations  1984   A Tale of Two Cities  The Catcher in the Rye Animal Farm  ...
24 comments
Read more