Leaving Lucy Pear

by Anna Solomon

Leaving Lucy Pear

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Adult Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, Jewish

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2016

About the author

Anna Solomon is the author of The Book of V., forthcoming from Henry Holt on May 5, 2020, Leaving Lucy Pear, and The Little Bride, a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, and the curator of @unkempt_real_life on Instagram. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe, One Story, Ploughshares, and Slate. Solomon is co-editor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers. Previously, she worked as a radio journalist. Anna was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts and lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Eileen · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good friend mentioned this book, and I was delighted to find it available at the library! I happily read endorsements on the cover by Robin Black (Life Drawings) and Sue Monk Kidd (Invention of Wings). The web had touted positive reviews by Kirkus and similar critics, raving about the quality of the writing, the fine plot line and such. There were many aspects to draw me in – the New England setting, the clandestine surrender of a baby born out of wedlock, the dysfunctional family. I managed to slog through the first seventy pages, but it just didn’t engage. From my perspective, the writing lacked luster, and the characters had little appeal. I recently came across a bookmark I’d picked up in Dublin which features a quote from James Joyce: ‘Life is too short to read a bad book’. So, on to the next! Many have loved this – it’s just not for me.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/08...

The story here starts when a well-off Jewish teenager finds herself pregnant in the early 1900s, and not wanting to send the baby to an orphanage, instead leaves her for a family who annually steal a bunch of pears from her uncle's orchard. OK, sure. And then the little girl's adoptive mother becomes said uncle's caretaker. And there are a bunch of other characters, and Solomon throws in all sorts of things about Sacco and Vanzetti, and labor movements, and the temperance movement, and secretly gay men, and anti-Semitism, and Freudian analysis, and and and. There is way too much going on here, the tension of waiting for everyone to find out about where the little girl is is unbearable, there are ridiculous coincidences galore, and a reveal at the end totally cheapens everything that came before (even if everything that came before was kind of a muddle). This is just all over the place. It wants to be the sort of books that wine moms talk about in book club, but it just never manages to come together. Content warning for mentions of rape and child abuse. B-.

[Cookie M.]

DNF.

Dear "Leaving Lucy Pear." I'm sorry. It just isn't working out. It's not you. It's me.
You'll find another reader. I'm going to go play solitaire for a while.

[Cian O hAnnrachainn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young Jewish women gives birth out of wedlock and chooses to leave her newborn under a pear tree, where she knows the hardscrabble Irish-Catholic pear stealers will find it. That infant is Lucy Pear, the one who gets left.

The novel is an intimate portrayal of human interactions, with narratives intertwined. After leaving the baby, Bea is expected to go back to her former life as if nothing happened, but nine years after abandoning the infant she is back to call on her elderly uncle who took her in when she was up the stick. The woman who found Lucy ends up as the uncle's nurse, brushing the edges of Bea's life, but each knows the secret of Lucy Pear and that secret hovers over the story.

Anna Solomon does a fine job of creating intersections that ramp up the tension as the reader wonders when Lucy Pear will realize that Bea is her birth mother. At the same time, she weaves a backdrop suited to the setting, with Emma looking at moonshining as a way to make a few dollars during Prohibition. There is tragedy that results from unintended consequences, pitting rich against poor at the same time as Sacco and Vanzetti stand trial at the height of the labor movement, plenty of little subplots to keep a reader's interest.

The ending falls off into literary fiction prettiness, filled with scenes of the future that the omniscient narrator assures us our characters don't yet know will happen, and finally the last chapter jumps into the present tense because, well, you know. Literary fiction.

There is no plumbing the depths of these characters. They float on the surface of the novel, somewhat shallow but entertaining in their diversity. In these modern times, you come to expect a stock gay character (Bea's husband) and an evil industrialist oppressing his workers and trying to bust the stonecutter union. Even Lucy is given the cross-dressing treatment, but it feels more like a girl disguising herself as a boy to live a more full life at a time when girls faced far more restrictions on their activities.

All in all, this was a pleasant read, the sort of book you get lost in and don't regret the time spent in the reading.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really had a hard time getting into this book. There were so many characters. And some of those characters would be out of the book for a while and then come back and I had to stop and think "who is this?". Also, there was a lot of cheating going on. Which I could not understand. The man loved his wife, came home and told himself that, but yet went out and did it again. That part I really didn't understand.

And this pinching thing with Roland? I know what they were trying to imply, but what did the pinching get him?

For me, it was just a very strange and different book. I did like the ending, which I can't really say why - too many spoilers. This was one that took a while to get into. While there were spots that I liked, there were many I did not.

For me, this book was just okay. However, I think there are those that would appreciate the book a lot better than I did. I just really could not get into it.

Thanks Penguin Group and Net Galley for allowing me to read a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little hard to get in to.
Boy this was a hard one. Sometimes it was 5 stars and other times barely 1.
Made me repeatedly ask myself is beautiful writing enough? Can it carry a meandering story? Why am I having such a hard time caring about these characters?
The writing was good, the story about a young girl with two mothers. The first mother leaves her baby under a pear tree so she can get on with her life and a second who picks the baby up from under the pear tree and raises her along with her other 8 children. Much of the story is initially about the 1st mother, her pregnancy in the 1920's. In her social strata the condition in an unmarried teenager could not be admitted to, so girls were hidden away far from home, and the resulting baby put in an orphanage or raised by another. But this is a small town that the girl is placed in with a kindly widowed uncle and she returns to it when her life after the baby turns out different than was expected. So the two women, Lucy's mothers come together quite by chance. Lucy Pear, the daughter of the title seemed something of a minor character to me.
My main criticism would be that there were too many characters, too many people, all with a story to tell, and the background of the struggles with the union and the trial of Sacco and Vancetti just overwhelmed the story at times. I could not care about one characters when there were so many demanding attention. I did like Lucy but found her too thoughtful for a girl of 9, not really believeable and overshadowed by the troubled adults around her.
I wanted to love the story as I did the writing at times but could not.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb historical fiction, I felt like I was a silent observer in all the scenes. The author is a consummate storyteller. Beatrice "Bea"Haven is a young girl, a talented pianist, about to set off for college when she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. The year is 1917 and she is the daughter of Jewish business owners in waspy, blueblood Boston. Bea gets sent to her paternal uncle's home in Cape Ann, MA until the birth where she is expected to give the baby up for adoption. The night before she is supposed to go to the adoption office, Bea has second thoughts and leaves the baby in the pear orchard on her uncle's land where she knows some Catholic families come to steal pears. The baby girl gets taken home by Emma Murphy, who already has a large family. Lucy Pear is raised by the Murphy's, but she always feels a bit different. Bea suffers what would probably be called postpartum depression today. Her family has her admitted to a private mental hospital, and though she gets better, she refuses to play piano again. Bea eventually marries, but she struggles with relationships, with her parents, husband, friends, and escapes to Cape Ann, ostensibly to take care of her ailing uncle, but mostly to hide away. The book gives such an amazing snapshot of life in the 1920's. There a several stories threaded together to create this tapestry-like tale. Besides the story of Lucy and Bea, we also follow the story of Emma and Josiah Stanton, both married from different social classes, but they carry on a clandestine affair. We find out about Bea's husband's struggle as a homosexual, and the dysfunctional family of Bea's father, mother, uncle,and cousins. There is just so much going on in this book, so much to learn about,bootlegging, labor laws, temperance, gender and social roles. I can't wait to see what author Anna Solomon writes next. Thank you to the publisher and Andrea Peskind Katz of Great Thoughts Great Readers for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful novel.

[Edan]

I was totally swept up in this novel about prohibition-era New England. The first scene is a real nail-biter, and I was impressed by how quickly moved I was by the characters and their plight. I LOVED the sweeping narrative style and the way Solomon so deftly moved from one character to another. There's a lot of good thematic stuff here about motherhood, mental illness, poverty--and it's also a compelling story with a juicy plot. (Side note: the disturbing image of a little girl getting secretly pinched by her (not actual) father won't leave me anytime soon.)

[Harley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did not enjoy this book. It was very complex and inter-woven. There were so many characters that it was really hard to keep track or even get to know most of the characters. I really wanted to dive deeper into certain characters in order to know them in a more complex way, but it never happened. The narration would just switch before I could do so.

I also thought the plot was weak. This book's plot was a constant back and forth between cheating spouses and the differences between classes.

I think the one part I did truly like about this book was the fact that it is a historical fiction. I enjoyed seeing the differences between classes of society, especially when they interact with each other.

Nonetheless, this book was dry and really hard to maintain an interest. It was an incredibly sluggish read. I kept checking to see how much I had read, but I kept wavering in the midway mark. Books are not supposed to read this way. I prefer a book that I will WANT to read in one sitting.

I am starting to think that this genre is not one for me. The "drama", or plot, was not for my taste--it often felt like drama between a bunch of house wives with nothing better to do...but then again, that is the voice of this era. I just did not enjoy to read about this drama.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A baby is left by a pear tree and adopted by the Murphy’s, a family of Irish “pickers” who raid the pear trees on a regular basis, arriving by boat in the middle of the night. Beatrice Haven, wealthy, Jewish, and the baby’s unwed mother, is distraught at the thought of giving the child to an orphanage and knowing of the Murphy’s evening visits, sneaks out of the house, leaves her infant girl at the base of the tree and hopes she’s found and treated well by her new family. Ten years later and now Beatrice Cohn, childless and a public figure in the women’s temperance movement, cares for her uncle Ira in the same home and remains haunted by her past. Unbeknownst to Bea, her daughter lives not too far from her and is being raised by Emma Murphy, her uncle’s nurse. The child is called Lucy Pear. This is not only Lucy’s story, but also Emma’s and Bea’s, two mothers and a young girl, caught up in a web of secrets and buried truths. The setting for Leaving Lucy Pear is the period of the Prohibition Movement, the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, a time of general mistrust of anything or anyone deemed “foreign.” Anna Solomon has written an engaging, human novel of love, loss and family.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1917 the world was an unforgiving place for a sixteen year old unwed mother. Bea comes from a wealthy and privileged family but this does not make her decision to leave her infant daughter in a pear orchard an easy choice to make. What happens to Bea and to baby Lucy Pear is the subject of this story. Their lives and the lives of all who were close to them are forever changed.
I found the story fascinating and enjoyed this book from start to finish.

[Dora Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I read, the more I loved. The story was intriguing, well woven and flowed. The characters were described beautifully as was the town of Gloucester. The end seemed a bit rushed and I was distracted when the author told the future a bit, but all considered this was a pleasure to read. When I don't want to put it down I must give five stars.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This captivating novel is definitely on my "Must Read List". I absolutely adored the characters, setting, and storyline. This beautiful piece of literature will be added to my personal collection, as I will likely be rereading this book in the future. It has quickly became one of my favorites!

"Leaving Lucy Pear" by Anna Solomon opens with a young Jewish girl named Bea. Bea has recently given birth to a beautiful baby girl, a baby girl who was conceived as a result of a sexual assault. The year is 1917, the setting a small suburb of Boston, the stigma on unwed mothers high. In order to avoid any social repercussions, Bea's parents have sent her to live with her Aunt and Uncle while she has the baby in secret. After the child is born, her parents arrange for the newborn to be taken to a Jewish orphanage for adoption. The nurse who comes to collect the baby for the orphanage is very cold and distant; Bea can not allow her to take her daughter.

Bea's uncle, a very wealthy estate owner, has a small pear orchid on the edge of his property. Every year, for as long as Bea can remember, stealthy thieves come for the ripened pears in the middle of the night. Bea's uncle has always suspected the pear thieves to be a family who is just trying to survive, this is why he has never reported them. One night, as the pears reach their most ripen state, Bea decides this will be the perfect opportunity for her to leave her little bundle of joy for a family to find. She has no idea who these pear thieves are, or if they are even kind, but she leaves her daughter under a pear tree, hiding in wait for them to rescue her baby. When the pear thieves arrive she can not see them through the darkness, she can only hear them. They sound like a kind Irish family. She remembers the close-knit Irish families of her community and is immediately put at ease. As they carry her daughter off into the night, Bea is relieved to have found somewhere for her daughter to go besides the orphanage.

Years go by and Bea constantly reflects on the night she left her daughter under the pear tree. She wonders where she is, what she looks like, if she's happy. One day a woman is sent to care for Bea's aging uncle. This caretaker, Emma, immediately recognizes Bea as the mother of her daughter, the one she rescued from under a pear tree so many years ago, Lucy Pear. Lucy Pear is the spitting image of Bea, and Emma has little doubt Bea is Lucy's birth mother. Bea is completely unaware Emma knows her long-held secret, one she has managed to hide all this time. This begins the journey of an amazing adventure through time and emotions. From the accurate historical and cultural references to the beautifully written prose, "Finding Lucy Pear" is an amazing piece of literature. I would highly recommend this new book by Anna Solomon as a great heart-felt read.

Please Note: I was given the opportunity by the publisher to read this novel prior to the release date. The book is scheduled to be released on July 26, 2016. It is currently available for preorder for both electronic and print editions.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Leaving Lucy Pear," by Anna Solomon gets 4.75 out of 5 stars from me. It would have been a 5 star read had the ending not left me wondering about Lucy's long term fate. Solomon writes beautifully. The novel really is fine literature written in modern times. While reading, I often wished I were in a college class so that as questions arose in my mind, they could be discussed, and the narrative could be dissected and debated. What did xyz really mean? Was it symbolism? Was it a literal meaning? Lucy Pear is abandoned as a newborn, in 1917, at the foot of a pear tree in New England, by her 18 year old, upper class, Radcliffe bound mother, Bea Haven (previously Hirsch). Remember, in 1917, having a baby out of wedlock was fraught with shame and disdain. Bea was sent by her mother, Lilliane, to live with her Uncle, the owner of the pear orchard where Lucy was left. Bea watched to make sure the baby was picked up by a mother and her posse of children, knowing that a mother of many would gladly accept and love a foundling. The book traces the first ten years of Lucy's life, and that of her new family, especially Emma, her mother, who has a lover and many other secrets. Lucy's family doesn't have much money, but Lucy is loved by her mother and siblings, and sometimes by her absentee fisherman father who becomes a danger to her as the years go by. The story also delves into the life Bea lived after leaving baby Lucy under a tree. There is an abundance of pain, anguish, love, longing, and regrets in this novel. The characters are all extremely well drawn, and all are flawed as are all humans. Descriptions are quite detailed in this It magnificent book, set mostly in the 1920's, when women's lives were so different than they are today. It's not a quick, light read, but it's worth the time spent inside its pages.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had a little trouble deciding how to rate this, a novel about money, class, and family, lies and secrets.

I enjoyed Anne Solomon’s The Little Bride a couple of years ago more than this one. Leaving Lucy Pear isn’t bad. Not at all. But for some reason I can’t quite pinpoint, it took a long time for me to become engaged. There were a lot of characters in two different families to keep track of and, depending on whose POV we were in at the moment, they were referred to by different names (Bea/Mrs. Cohen, Ira/Mr. Hirsch, Lillian/Mrs. Havens, etc.), leading me, having forgotten the characters’ full names, to say too frequently, “Wait. Who is that?” In my defense, I have been extremely tired this past week.

It was well into the second half before I really got a hold of all the slippery characters and the complexities of their various relationships, backstories, sources of trauma, and regrets. But in the end, I liked it. The writing, as in The Little Bride, was very good without being flashy or calling attention to itself. So, 3.5, rounded up. I still liked The Little Bride better though.

[Cheryl James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story. A family who had several issues within themselves but who kept it together for the daughter, granddaughter, and great niece who was given up and later reunited with the family when they least expected it. They say that if you let someone/something go and the person/thing comes back it was meant to be. The mother (who was very young at the time) had no idea that the lady helping her take care of her uncle was also the lady who found and raised her daughter who she left in the pear field (Lucy Pear). Mother and young daughter were united but not always on the best of terms. Family secrets, lies and drama. The story ended very vague to me, almost setting the stage for a sequel, Uhm?

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Leaving Lucy Pear didn't quite live up to my admittedly extremely high expectations, it was still a solid read jam-packed with vibrant characters and set in a fascinating period in history. Unfortunately, the number of story lines kept me from becoming fully invested in this one and sidestepped characters I would have loved to have been able to get to know better. I understand I'm the odd man out, since it's already received heaps of praise just a few days after its release and I'm positive other readers will find it far more intriguing than I did. Cutting one or two of the lesser stories would have done a world of difference in allowing the remaining arcs to be fleshed out further and wouldn't have made the book feel as though it was overstaying its welcome.

For the full review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The country is in a period of unrest following the World War I which colors the events in Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon. This is the story of an unplanned pregnancy and its aftermath. In 1917 New England, wealth was a deterrent to having a baby out of wedlock. Bea, the wealthy Jewish unwed mother, places her baby under a pear tree and waits for the Irish mother and children to find her. Ten years later, the two mothers interact, realize they share common interests, especially the child they mother. Lucy Pear takes the strength of both mothers and becomes her own person at a young age.
The early part of the novel moves slowly, but the last part flies by.
I won this novel through goodreads.

[Brian Gresko · Rating 5 out of 5]

From it's gripping opening scene, Solomon's book had me hooked. The fascinating prohibition era world of Cape Ann, with its temperance societies and bootleggers, is impeccably conjured by Solomon's graceful sentences. Even more intriguing are the central characters of Emma and Bea, each coming from very different worlds and classes, and yet both trapped within the restrictive roles society demands of them. The men who swirl around them are fascinating too, but I was riveted by the complex relationship between these two women, which have at heart a love for the eponymous Lucy Pear. This is a really great literary historical fiction!

[nikkia neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Penguin's first-to-read for this ARC.

Amazing women are nothing new to history, but it's the ones that don't make the news that should really amaze us. This book is a great example of that.

[Sarah Ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with the characters in Leaving Lucy Pear and eagerly followed them as their lives overlapped and their stories deepened. The book is set in a specific time and place, but the heartache it explores is universal. Solomon is a beautiful writer.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously well researched, this multi layered novel set in prohibition era Gloucester is utterly transporting, masterfully told. Interview TK.

[Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. You won't regret it. Solomon's descriptive, no-nonsense language is a perfect match for her quirky characters and rich setting. Loved every word.

[OpenBookSociety.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://openbooksociety.com/article/le...


Leaving Lucy Pear
By Anna Solomon
IBSN: 9781594632655
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Una

Description:

A big, heartrending novel about the entangled lives of two women in 1920s New England, both mothers to the same unforgettable girl.

One night in 1917 Beatrice Haven sneaks out of her uncle’s house on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear tree, and watches as another woman claims the infant as her own. The unwed daughter of wealthy Jewish industrialists and a gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start. Ten years later, Prohibition is in full swing, post-WWI America is in the grips of rampant xenophobia, and Bea’s hopes for her future remain unfulfilled. She returns to her uncle’s house, seeking a refuge from her unhappiness. But she discovers far more when the rum-running manager of the local quarry inadvertently reunites her with Emma Murphy, the headstrong Irish Catholic woman who has been raising Bea’s abandoned child—now a bright, bold, cross-dressing girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own.

In mesmerizing prose, award-winning author Anna Solomon weaves together an unforgettable group of characters as their lives collide on the New England coast. Set against one of America’s most turbulent decades, Leaving Lucy Pear delves into questions of class, freedom, and the meaning of family, establishing Anna Solomon as one of our most captivating storytellers.

Review:

This is a complex story of two women and their families from different societal worlds whose lives become entangled due to the birth of Lucy Pear. Beatrice a music prodigy is sexually taken advantaged of and becomes pregnant in her teens. Her wealthy Jewish parents send her to her Uncles to have the baby but expect her to commit to her career when the baby is born. The baby girl is to be sent to an orphanage however Beatrice won’t condemn her to that life and decides to leave her under the pear trees where she knows the Irish families come to steal pears. Beatrice’s life is never the same after that decision and she never really can commit to any type of relationship.

The baby is picked up and raised by Emma Murphy along with her natural children. Both Emma’s and Beatrice’s lives become weaved together when Emma becomes caregiver to Beatrice’s Uncle.

Both families’ complexities were hard to follow at times but I for one got immersed in the setting of prohibition in the 1920’s and the complicated lives of women at that time. Mothers having to do almost anything to put food on the table, their children having to try and survive through wit and brawn and the very male dominated society that was the time, all told by the actions and story of Lucy Pear herself.

Lucy Pear although older than her 11 years decides to go and find her brother who moved to Canada. To do that she knows she has to earn enough for her train ride. Even when she finds out that Beatrice is her mother she does not take it for granted that money will be easy come by. She stays loyal to Emma and her siblings. The story touches a little on Emma’s husband’s abuse of the children but that story line really doesn’t get resolved other than the children go with Emma and live in the big house with Beatrice and her uncle.

The only part of the book I found difficult was the ending when Lucy goes on the train by herself. There is no closure as to whether the meeting up with her brother goes well or whether she gets sent back home. Perhaps that is another book. I for one would like to continue with the life story of Lucy Pear.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

[Nancy Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received this novel through a First Reads giveaway but that in no way affected this review.

A wealthy young woman, destined to go to Radcliffe as a gifted pianist, finds herself pregnant out of wedlock in 1917. Leaving the infant underneath a pear tree the night the pear-stealers appear, Beatrice (Bea) Haven hopes one of the families will claim her. And it comes to pass that Emma Murphy finds the baby and rears her as her own.

Ten years later, the two women meet and are brought together once again through a series of coincidences. Each of the women carries secrets, but the biggest one is that Emma realizes that this woman, Bea Cohn, is Lucy Pear's biological mother. Does Beatrice know, and if she does, what will happen?

Set during the time of Prohibition, women's suffrage, and post-World War I, it is a novel of families and unfulfilled dreams. It is a time of rampant xenophobia, worker's struggles, and class distinctions (reminding this reader of what is going on even today).

Literary in language and nature, it is a bit slow to start and keeping track of all the characters and their relationships is, at times, difficult. After what was a slowly revealing story, the ending almost seemed rushed, and it took this reader a few re-reads of the last several chapters to understand it all.

The title character, Lucy Pear, is a ten-year-old cross-dressing girl, who is bright and bold, doing whatever jobs she can to escape a father who is cruel. Discovering her birth mother has a heart-wrenching effect upon Lucy and the whole Murphy clan. Overall, this is a story of motherhood and the sacrifices that women make for love.

3.5 stars

[Sally Coles · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1917 when Bea, a young Jewish girl finds that she is pregnant she is sent away to her uncles in Massachusetts to give birth. When the baby is born Bea decides to leave the baby in the pear orchard where she knows that local catholic families steal the pears every year and will find her.

Emma take in the baby calling her Lucy Pear but Lucy grows up always knowing that she is different from the rest of the family.

Ten years later Bea comes back to take care of her uncle who is in ailing health and so comes across the daughter that she gave away but never forgot - can she reveal who she really is?

A very interesting novel including lots of history of the times from prohibition to homosexuality and how the families cope with the issues of the time

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1920s coastal Massachusetts, "Leaving Lucy Pear" is the story of an infant left under a pear tree, the two mothers who love her, and the concentric circles of those who love the mothers. So very well written, with quiet assuredness and calm reckoning, Solomon's characters will stick with you because their stories are much like the stories of your own family -- understood, but not always told in their entirety to everyone. A wonderful book. Highly recommend.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked this book. Liked the characters and story flow. Entertaining read. The banter and the interaction between characters was good reading. Conflicts and mystery leave you guessing what happens next. Tough choices were made and these decisions are what you have to live with. Would recommend. Voluntarily review from book received from NetGalley.

[Bikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay.

I was sucked into the beginning and then hit a wall and skimmed from page 150 to the end. I wanted to know what happened with Lucy, but I wasn’t enthralled with the story line or loving the characters enough to actually read like I normally would. I had to drag myself to finish.

[Mary Kabrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the writing and the way this author provided the reader with depth of insight into a multitude of characters resulting in a compasionate understanding.