Barbara Kingsolver is an outstanding author and has an amazing way with words. She opened up a world in Southern Appalachia with characters and circumstances that has the reader apprehensive as to what was forthcoming on the next page. I would have rated Demon Copperhead 5 stars, except for the fact the book began to really drag for me around the 60% mark. It picked up again near the end and I was glad of the ending. It is a story I will think about.

I couldn’t put this lovely, sweet book down. An empathetic story about recovering from loss and grief. Highly recommend.

Ethan Joella’s sophomore novel is a quiet, thoughtful, hopeful story that is beautifully written.  

“Maybe that is love. Maybe loving someone so deeply means accepting the fact that they occupy a specific, clear place in you. You accept that there will be a hole if you lose them- the same way a painting or photograph will leave its shadow on the wall after it’s gone, the way a tree will leave a crater where the roots and stump were.”

The Sweet Spot is a quirky, laugh out loud story. It is set in NYC with a family’s brownstone at the heart of it. There’s a bar in the basement called The Sweet Spot, but it isn’t a book about a bar. It’s about women whose lives converge, and centres around family, found family, and friendship. Some of the characters may be unlikeable, however, they are flawed humans like us all and redeem themselves in the end.   

Thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books, Netgalley and Thoughts From a Page early reads patreon for the advance reader copy. All thoughts are my own.

I had no idea Graham Norton was an author until this book was recommended to me. Excellent story. He narrates the audiobook and it is so well done.