Where will you go from here?
Willa’s Grove by Laura Munson
Montana is the star of Laura Munson’s Willa’s Grove, a
beautiful place, beautifully depicted, with tiny towns so small one might even
be for sale—but what happens to people when their town is sold.
The novel’s “costars” are four women who, like the town of Willa, are wondering where they go “from here.” Each for different reasons feels lost and betrayed by life and friends. And each has arrived at the rambling farmhouse, as much on a whim as in reply to invitation. But a town needs relationships as surely as people do, as surely as crops need farming and animals need care. And just as surely, all can be wild as well.
Willa’s Grove balances wild and tame in human nature and in
nature, blending folksy wisdom with fascinating backstories and captivating
drama. While none of the characters is immediately relatable, they all prove
well worth knowing in their own rights, and they, together with town and
country, plus a warm touch of faith hope and love, carry the story on.
The novel is neither self-help nor spiritual, neither
romantic nor unromantic, neither traditional nor avant-garde. It’s just a good,
surprisingly positive, absorbing women’s read, reminding me, oddly, of The
Women’s Room, which I read way way back in college.
Disclosure: I was give a copy and I freely offer my
honest review.
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