Deborah Reed

This one had a good premise, and it started well, with a good hook. In the prologue, which consists of a few opening pages, Vivvie shoots and kills her husband Jackson, making it look like a hunting accident. What we don't know is why? The bulk of the book takes place in the present, about 30 years after the prologue. Vivvie is estranged from her two daughters, Elin and Kate, who were young girls at the time of Jackson's death, and hasn't had contact with either one of them for a long time. Then, the police come to her door to tell her that Kate is hospitalized from an overdose, and someone needs to take custody of Kate's two young daughters, Averlee and Quincy. Elin, who is having marital difficulties of her own, comes back to town to help with the care of the two girls. Ah, I think, a novel of family reconciliation. Lovely.

Only it wasn't so lovely. The characters are shallow and act in ways that are implausible and make no sense. Why did Kate, on learning she was ill, send her husband away (he seemed a good guy), isolate herself and insist on no further contact with him? Why did she totally cut him off from his two daughters, who he clearly loved? Why did the husband allow himself to be isolated from his family? These are just a few of the things that made no sense. And where actions are given reasons, they seem to be manufactured or artificial and also make no sense. I liked the Florida setting in this one, and the prologue grabbed me, but the rest of it--Ugh.

1 1/2 stars… (més)

Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed is mainly the story of the life of Violet Swan (a famous painter) during the last six months of her life, the past being her memory flashbacks. But it's also very much about her family--her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson and a bit about her late husband. There are also a couple of secondary characters of importance. I got to know all these people. Even minor characters felt real. The main POV is Violet, but the rest of her family each have some chapters from their point of view.

What I love most about all these characters is the flawed reality of them. I know them in what, to me, is a surprisingly real way. The living people as if I'd actually met them, maybe as a close family friend, and those no longer living in the way we sort of know someone we never met, but had been often told about by someone we care about who did actually know and care about them. I didn't always agree or understand them, but those disagreements were not due to deficits in the writing. They were the same as the disagreements I have with anyone I know. We never actually know anyone 100%. Probably not even ourselves.

This book is about love. It exudes love. It's not romantic, fairytale love, though there's a generous dollop of that. It's about an imperfect, yet real and abiding love of family and friends. By the end of the book that love was palpable.… (més)