Book Summary (Goodreads)...Robin Windsor has spent most of her life under an assumed name, running from her family's ignominious past. She thought she'd finally found sanctuary in her rather unremarkable used bookstore just up the street from the marina in River City, Michigan. But the store is struggling and the past is hot on her heels.
When she receives an eerily familiar book in the mail on the morning of her father's scheduled execution, Robin is thrown back to the long-lost summer she met Peter Flynt, the perfect boy who ruined everything. That book--a first edition Catcher in the Rye--is soon followed by the other books she shared with Peter nearly twenty years ago, with one arriving in the mail each day. But why would Peter be making contact after all these years? And why does she have a sinking feeling that she's about to be exposed all over again?
With evocative prose that recalls the classic novels we love, Erin Bartels pens a story that shows that words--the ones we say, the ones we read, and the ones we write--have more power than we imagine.
My thoughts... I've been branching out a little bit with a few different authors this year, and I've really enjoyed the variety of writing. This is my first book by Erin Bartels and I'm happy to say that I'm now a fan!
The cover, title, and description of this book really drew me in. This is not your average, neat and tidy story with a happy ending. I like those kind of books, too, but this is a lot more raw and gritty. Complex characters that are each trying to navigate the trauma they experienced as children as they grow into adulthood. The story hops from one time period to another: childhood, teen years, and adulthood, all told from Robin's perspective. At times I was kind of surprised at some of the plot twists and directions the story went, but it was all part of the revelation of the trauma and coping mechanisms of the main character, Robin. Even though Robin's life has been one trauma after another, she finds acceptance, friendship, and even a degree of love through the words she shares with a young man she meets at the cemetery near her house. Later finding out that they went to the same school, him being a popular senior and she being a younger, new girl, it didn't stop them from exchanging books and poetry with one another.
All Peter has left of his mother are the books she left behind. He shares this part of himself with Robin and she "pays" for them by writing poems to Peter, also sharing a piece of herself that no one else knows. Even though so many words are exchanged, a miscommunication drives them apart until Peter begins to reach out to Robin the only way he knows how...through the beloved books she hastily left on his doorstep before she disappeared.
This novel had a little bit of everything...all of which created stirs of emotion. I love the title...it is a perfect fit in so many ways. I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more by Erin Bartels!
**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley, in order to give my honest opinion and review, which I did.**
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