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The Last Word
By Taylor Adams
Published by William Morrow,9780063222892. April 2023, 352 pp

The Short of It:

Relentless.

The Rest of It:

Emma escapes to a secluded beach house with a fully loaded ebook reader, her sweet Golden Retriever, and a backpack full of rocks. From the first pages, it’s clear that she’s battling some demons and a boat load of guilt. She’s also mourning an impossible loss. All she wants to do is read trashy crime books, hang out with her dog and then walk into the ocean with her backpack full of rocks. It’s a simple plan but it’s a plan that quickly falls apart.

After finishing a particularly lame .99 cent ebook, she decides to post a one star review on Amazon. What she doesn’t anticipate is that the author immediately takes offense and tells her so. He demands that she delete the review. Emma finds this ridiculously unreasonable. People are allowed to have opinions and so she adamantly refuses to cave to the request. Who does this guy think he is?

From this point on, the story goes absolutely haywire. Emma begins to hear strange noises in the house and she feels watched. Oddly enough a neighbor at the other end of the Strand befriends her by writing notes back and forth on a whiteboard. They are then viewed by each through a telescope. Emma takes comfort in this stranger’s messages and when things take a crazy turn at the house, she relies on this new friend to watch things from afar.

Is there really a threat? Is she overreacting? Can this author really be so bent over a review that he comes after her? The thing is, he’s a horror writer and the numerous deaths in his stories are grisly and graphic. Painstakingly so. He almost seems to relish “the kill”, so is it really all that far-fetched to think that he could carry that hunger into real life?

Taylor Adams must have had fun writing this one. He jerks you one way, then the other, provides the truth, only for the reader to find out that what he’s just set up is quite the opposite of truth. At first, there was a small piece of me that quickly grew bored with the teasing. A few times I literally cried out, “Really? Come on!” But I gotta tell you, I could not put the dang book down and read it in one sitting.

Plus, I don’t know how he kept it all straight. All the minute details that are revisited later in the story. It’s just wild how it all comes together. The intensity of this one is quite good. My advice to you? Read it, enjoy the craziness of it. Don’t spend too much time trying to critique it. I loved No Exit and this one has that same crazy pace.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Count The Ways
By Joyce Maynard
William Morrow, 9780062398277, July 13, 2021, 464pp.

The Short of It:

An amazingly heartfelt story about a family.

The Rest of It:

The easiest way to describe Maynard’s newest story is to say that it’s a story about life. The life that you and I know, have lived or are currently living. As I was reading it, I could relate to different parts of the story as well as different characters as they were walking through it.

At a young age, Eleanor scrimped and saved to buy a farm and the small but lovely house that came along with it. Having some success writing children’s books, she built a small, humble home for herself and when she falls in love with Cam, he immediately becomes her future. The talk of kids and family and raising them on the farm is all that matters to them and so they waste no time. Three children later, Eleanor’s writing career is somewhat on pause due to raising her young children, Eleanor and Cam struggle to make ends meet. Cam? Not concerned. He has what he wants. He’s creating his burl bowls in his workshop and he’s surrounded by his family.

Although the bowls he creates are beautiful, they don’t sell and with Eleanor’s writing career on hold, she slowly begins to resent Cam’s easy going attitude about making, or not making a living. He is the fun parent. Always stepping in to whisk the kids away to the waterfall, or play with them all day long while Eleanor sits in the house trying to come up with new story ideas. During these times, the cracks begin to show. The cracks in their marriage. All is not gold. Is it ever?

This is such a reflective type of read. Eleanor feels every bit of her age as her children grow. The hours spent feeding them, changing their diapers, tending to their every need. It all leaves a mark. At the same time though, it’s exactly what she wanted from life. A home. A family. A loving man to call her husband. As the home life she creates begins to unravel around her, she wonders why she never wanted more for herself.

I loved this story. There is so much to ponder. Especially for me, as my own kids leave this nest we’ve created. I’d turn a page and read something that I’d have to sit with for a little while before moving forward. I’d go to bed thinking about this family, about missed opportunities and about friends and the idea of home and what it means to each of us. This family will stay with me for a very long time.

Simply put, get yourself a copy. It doesn’t matter if you are married, single, have had kids or not. There is something here for everyone. Highly recommend.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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