FREE-FALLING INTO PLACE — A Review of “While I’m Falling”

Laura Moriarty’s While I’m Falling is an intensely engaging story that looks deep into family relationships, especially when the traditional stronghold of family life has shifted; a mother is displaced, both in her role as a housewife/mother and in her financial circumstances, while a daughter is adjusting to her own budgetary constraints at the same time that she’s trying to maintain a new relationship.

Told primarily from the daughter Veronica’s point of view, occasionally presenting the mother Natalie’s perspective, this compelling and dynamic exploration of a family falling apart spotlights what it is like for the daughter, who is trying to grow up while her mother is just trying to stay afloat.

Fearful that their mother is “going crazy,” Veronica and her sister Elise (who is a lawyer living in California) each try to grasp their mother’s issues without really understanding them. But Veronica finally does come to know firsthand what her mother is experiencing when Natalie shows up at her dorm one night with an odd request.

Meanwhile, Veronica has been trying to make ends meet by taking on extra jobs–a dorm assistant job mixed in with house-sitting for a student who has a luxurious condo. Strange mishaps on the job create havoc in Veronica’s already-stressed life.

When these chaotic lives seemingly spin out of control, events suddenly turn on a dime, and everything begins to fall into place.

This absorbing drama kept me reading, page after page, until the fulfilling conclusion.

FINDING WHAT YOU SEEK — RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU

With a title like Summer House: A Novel, this book could be just an ordinary beach read. But Nancy Thayer has transformed this story from light to deep in her multi-layered family drama.

The Wheelwrights of Boston, with an ancestral summer home on Nantucket, have traditions and a legacy; many who have married into the family have striven to live up to both with some difficulty. From the current matriarch Anne (Nona) down to the contemporary Wheelwrights, there are expectations and disappointments aplenty. And the bank that has sustained the family and employs family members is an institution in and of itself.

We follow the family members as they move from Boston to Nantucket and back again over the summer months. Interspersed within these pages is Anne’s story, alternating with the current family saga; gradually we come to learn about secrets and betrayal that will impact the family for years to come.

Worth and Grace are the children of Anne and Herb (who is deceased); they compete and struggle to live up to the family traditions. Grace’s husband Kellogg works in the bank, along with Worth. However, Worth’s children have all declined to join in this family business, and Helen, Worth’s wife, supports their children’s individuality. Worth has more difficulty with their children’s decisions.

In the months leading up to the summer highlighted in this book, Helen discovers a secret of Worth’s that has the potential to unravel their marriage and their lives.

Meanwhile, Worth and Helen’s daughter Charlotte has been living with Nona on the island, developing her environmentally friendly garden and selling the goods to the islanders. Son Oliver is planning to marry his partner Owen, and just as summer begins, son Teddy—alcoholic/drug abusing troubled son—shows up with a pregnant Suzette.

Everyone is poised for drama as the months unfold.

Thayer has the ability to enthrall the reader, which is one reason I have enjoyed this book, and many of her others that I have read.

The characters were believable and flawed just enough that we could almost know them as real people. Definitely a five-star read.

POISED FOR POWER

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Harte Dynasty series is one of my all-time favorites.

I had launched this Ravenscar Dynasty series by reading one out of order (Being Elizabeth), so I decided to back up and start at the beginning.

The Ravenscar Dynasty is set near the beginning of the twentieth century, in England, and sweeps across Europe at points along the journey. The Deravenel family is poised to reclaim its birthright as head of the company Deravenels.

This latest attempt to reclaim the company is propelled by the sudden deaths of several male members of the family—a father, an uncle, and two younger men—all believed to have been murdered by their bitter rivals, the Grants.

Edward Deravenel is now the logical new head of the family, and a cousin, Neville Watkins, is all set to mentor him and to assist in finding the ammunition to overthrow the company.

However, Edward is only eighteen years old and an inveterate womanizer. What chance does he have of taking control of such a huge dynasty?

Over the pages we learn of how these contenders accomplish this feat, and root for them as obstacles thrown in their path are defeated one by one.

Filled with the pursuit of power and passion, this novel takes us through a long-ago time; the ambition and treachery of this climb to power illuminates this dramatic epic saga.

Now I cannot wait to begin the next tale in this family adventure.

I deducted one star, because I could not really relate to the characters…but I did admire their ambitions and desires.

Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of: Miles to Go, etc.