**Good Grief**
Good Grief is an engaging, female-centered novel that celebrates the connection between two women who both love the same deceased man. That is… a young widow and her mother-in-law.
The year is 1963 and the setting is the greater DC area. Barbara Feldman has 2 children, 6 and 4. Her mother moved in when her husband died very young of a massive heart attack. They realize that the time has come for Barbara and the kids to survive on their own, so her mother-in-law moves out.
They have exactly one day as a family of 3, when her Mother-in-law shows up on her porch with five suitcases. There is no room for argument, Ruth Feldman knows that Barbara’s mother has just left and she is taking her rightful place.
Hilarity ensues!
Okay- time for my trigger warning. What happens next is Ruth meddling and really going overboard on being intrusive. If you struggle with setting boundaries and/or are triggered by this, this is a major theme of the book and – I will admit – it raised my blood pressure a bit. I grew to really love Ruth in the end, but there were several times that I was full of anxiety at what she was doing. For example, Barbara has people coming to paint the kitchen a pale yellow and Ruth changes it to being pink. That kind of thing, over and over.
But all the while, you know that Ruth means well, and she really does love Barbara and her grandchildren. Barbara decides to play matchmaker to just get Ruth out of her house.
Historical fiction in the mid twentieth century can be a difficult plot for 2025 readers; authors make the mistake of making the characters unrealistic and having the culture/viewpoints of the typical 21st century reader. Authors also can make the time period overly nostalgic, but that isn’t the case here. The workplace is a hospital and very different than today’s society. You can change your own perceptions and see things through the eyes of characters who are
Immersed in another time.
It also made me grateful for the women of Barbara and Ruth’s time that made workplaces better for women and mothers like myself.
4.5 stars rounded up.
Thanks to NetGalley and Lake House publishing for the ARC.
**Doll Parts**
An intriguing and creative debut novel with dueling timelines of “sad girls on campus” twenty years ago and another timeline of today.
Sadie has a baby and lives with her child’s father, Harrison. Harrison is recently widowed by Sadie’s former childhood friend, Nikki. So, Sadie and Nikki were estranged and never spoke for 20 years. Nikki dies, seemingly of suicide, and Sadie sits in the back at her funeral. 9 months later we skip and Sadie is living with her widow and has a baby with him.
If this seems weird and a bit unbelievable, you aren’t alone in that thought!
We side with Sadie and see things from her perspective. We don’t love Harrison, we aren’t sure about Caroline, who is Nikki and Harrison’s teen daughter.
Both mysteries are good, the past one is better, it is clever to be following two mysteries in different timelines because it gets away from the typical criticism of slow burn mysteries as that it can drag in the middle.
Why is it called Doll Parts? No idea! I do love the cover, though.
My favorite character was Nikki, the past segments are in her view point.
Lots of open ended things with no conclusion, but it works. I liked this and found i very readable, some of the minor characters didn’t have enough characterization so I didn’t know them as well. I did love the setting and the writing style.
A fresh new voice in women centered mystery/thrillers!
3 enthusiastic stars
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Landmark for the ARC.
**Forget Me Not**
Classic Stacy Willingham– an extremely lucky FMC, a haunting setting, a slow build up and a twisty end.
Claire is disheartened when she misses out on a promotion to her best friend Ryan. She leaves NYC and her journalism career somewhat impulsively to return to her Southern small town to spend time with her mom. We learn early on that her older sister Natalie was killed years ago as a high school senior by her secret older boyfriend and that Claire carries guilt about this. Claire doesn’t have a lot of responsibilities and no health care, so she fortuitously goes to work at a grape farm 45 minutes away with no cell service or WiFi.
Ryan and Claire’s mom work as good plot devices to advance the plot and help Claire solve this mystery. The setting is great and well paced, I really enjoyed the setting, the side characters are creepy and the reveals are surprising. If you suspend disbelief at some of the “right place at the right time” moments and give in to the thriller, you will enjoy it.
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC.
4 stars
Leave a Reply