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The Distance from Four Points
Soon after her husband's tragic death, Robin Besher makes a startling discovery: He had recklessly blown through their entire savings on decrepit rentals in Four Points, the Appalachian town Robin grew up in. Forced to return after decades, Robin and her daughter, Haley, set out to renovate the properties as quickly as possible―before anyone exposes Robin's secret past as a teenage prostitute. Disaster strikes when Haley befriends a troubled teen mother, hurling Robin back into a past she'd worked so hard to escape. Robin must reshape her idea of home or risk repeating her greatest mistakes. Margo Orlando Littell, author of Each Vagabond by Name, tells an enthralling and nuanced story about family, womanhood, and coming to terms with a left-behind past.
- GenresFiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2020
7 people are currently reading
668 people want to read
About the author
Margo Orlando Littell
2 books108 followersI grew up in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town where crumbling mansions are all that remain of the coal-and-coke wealth from the early twentieth century, when the town led the United States in millionaires per capita. Now, nearly half the population lives at or below the poverty level, and haunting, once-splendid buildings in the old downtown can be purchased for a song. After more than two decades of living in New York City, Barcelona, Northern California, and New Jersey, I've settled down in Pittsburgh with my husband and two teenage daughters.
I started writing obsessively as soon as I learned to write, in a Cabbage Patch diary I filled with critical minutia like “We get to have pop at Grandma’s.” Thousands of journal pages followed, and then, eventually, poetry. I was serious about my efforts, and in high school I attended the Pennsylvania School for the Arts. It’s funny how bits from the far past sometimes resurface: a poem I heard during my poetry classes that summer--over twenty years ago now--wound up becoming the epigraph of Each Vagabond By Name.
I began writing short stories at the University of Dayton and went on to receive an MFA from Columbia, where I taught undergraduate composition and wrote a collection of novellas. After a few years working as an editor in New York City, I sold nearly everything I owned, quit my job, and followed my boyfriend to Spain--and then to California and then back to Brooklyn. Somewhere in all that, we got married and had kids. Life took over for a while, freelance editing and professional resume writing and house buying and child rearing, but in 2011 I turned one of my novellas into a full-length novel that would become Each Vagabond By Name.
Inspired again by southwestern Pennsylvania, I published a second novel set in the area in 2020, The Distance from Four Points.
I’m driven to write about characters who are rooted to a place and who, even if they succeed at leaving, feel pulled toward home for one reason or another. I find inspiration in odd rummage-sale finds, visits to my hometown, and newspaper articles that give a glimpse of quiet struggles and preoccupations that are just to the side of the expected thing.
I started writing obsessively as soon as I learned to write, in a Cabbage Patch diary I filled with critical minutia like “We get to have pop at Grandma’s.” Thousands of journal pages followed, and then, eventually, poetry. I was serious about my efforts, and in high school I attended the Pennsylvania School for the Arts. It’s funny how bits from the far past sometimes resurface: a poem I heard during my poetry classes that summer--over twenty years ago now--wound up becoming the epigraph of Each Vagabond By Name.
I began writing short stories at the University of Dayton and went on to receive an MFA from Columbia, where I taught undergraduate composition and wrote a collection of novellas. After a few years working as an editor in New York City, I sold nearly everything I owned, quit my job, and followed my boyfriend to Spain--and then to California and then back to Brooklyn. Somewhere in all that, we got married and had kids. Life took over for a while, freelance editing and professional resume writing and house buying and child rearing, but in 2011 I turned one of my novellas into a full-length novel that would become Each Vagabond By Name.
Inspired again by southwestern Pennsylvania, I published a second novel set in the area in 2020, The Distance from Four Points.
I’m driven to write about characters who are rooted to a place and who, even if they succeed at leaving, feel pulled toward home for one reason or another. I find inspiration in odd rummage-sale finds, visits to my hometown, and newspaper articles that give a glimpse of quiet struggles and preoccupations that are just to the side of the expected thing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
July 12, 2020
Each Vagabond by Name, a debut novel by Margo Orlando Littell is a novel that spoke to me about coping with loss, about belonging and how to find a way forward from adverse circumstances. It had me looking forward to her next one and I wasn’t disappointed with this, her latest book, which spoke to me in many of the same ways.
Robin Besher, down and out as a desperate teen age girl leaves an abusive alcoholic mother resorting to the worst to survive. At 43 and what feels like light years away from the town of Four Points, Robin has escaped the town, leaving her secretive past, but still taking her sadness with her. Robin lives in an affluent community with the her husband Ray and teen age daughter Haley. Tragedy strikes and Robin has to return to her roots to tend to the dilapidated rental properties her husband spent all their money on, before he dies. She’s feeling down and out once again, having to move with Haley from their comfortable home and existence and try to survive on the meager rents these places bring in.
It’s never easy to escape one’s past and sometimes just impossible, but in spite of everything, Robin has the capacity to be empathetic and kind to her tenants and then to a teenage girl and her infant who she meets on the street . Having lost everything, except her daughter, she musters up the wherewithal to do what she needs to do to make a good life for Haley. This strong and caring woman hasn’t lost her empathy or her ability to care about people. I admired her as well as an old friend Cindy, just one of the people from Robin’s past that become a part of this story. A laudable second novel.
I received a copy of this book from University of New Orleans Press through NetGalley.
Robin Besher, down and out as a desperate teen age girl leaves an abusive alcoholic mother resorting to the worst to survive. At 43 and what feels like light years away from the town of Four Points, Robin has escaped the town, leaving her secretive past, but still taking her sadness with her. Robin lives in an affluent community with the her husband Ray and teen age daughter Haley. Tragedy strikes and Robin has to return to her roots to tend to the dilapidated rental properties her husband spent all their money on, before he dies. She’s feeling down and out once again, having to move with Haley from their comfortable home and existence and try to survive on the meager rents these places bring in.
It’s never easy to escape one’s past and sometimes just impossible, but in spite of everything, Robin has the capacity to be empathetic and kind to her tenants and then to a teenage girl and her infant who she meets on the street . Having lost everything, except her daughter, she musters up the wherewithal to do what she needs to do to make a good life for Haley. This strong and caring woman hasn’t lost her empathy or her ability to care about people. I admired her as well as an old friend Cindy, just one of the people from Robin’s past that become a part of this story. A laudable second novel.
I received a copy of this book from University of New Orleans Press through NetGalley.
May 27, 2020
After Robin Besher’s husband passes away, she learned he has used all their savings on rentals in the tiny Appalachian town, Four Points, where Robin grew up.
Robin and her daughter, Haley, had to Four Points to quickly renovate the rentals. Robin has a huge secret to hide from her teenage years, and it’s threatened when Haley becomes close to a teen mom.
If you love immersive storytelling, please pick up this book. This is exactly the kind of story I love to get lost in with richly drawn characters, an atmospheric setting with character and secrets, and strong, hopeful women.
I’d read anything this author writes and will definitely be reading Each Vagabond by Name.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Robin and her daughter, Haley, had to Four Points to quickly renovate the rentals. Robin has a huge secret to hide from her teenage years, and it’s threatened when Haley becomes close to a teen mom.
If you love immersive storytelling, please pick up this book. This is exactly the kind of story I love to get lost in with richly drawn characters, an atmospheric setting with character and secrets, and strong, hopeful women.
I’d read anything this author writes and will definitely be reading Each Vagabond by Name.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
May 28, 2020
!! NOW AVAILABLE !!
Four Points was the small town in the Appalachian foothills of Pennsylvania where Robin Besher grew up, a place which she never wanted to return. Her memories of living there are the kind anyone would want to forget, but when her husband Ray dies unexpectedly, and she then learns the truth of their financial situation. Ray had invested all of the money into a few small run-down rental units in the place she never wanted to see again, let alone move back to. Made even harder to bear is the thought of taking her teenage daughter Haley with her, to move into one of these small ranch home ’wearing its careless vacancy like a gruesomely scarred, unpatched eye.’
Haley, at the age of thirteen, has never known such poverty, having lived her whole life in an exclusive community where places like this were completely foreign to her, so her reaction to their new housing situation leaves Robin feeling like a failure as a mother, feeling she should have known, and prevented this turn of events, somehow.
Determined to get them out of this situation, and especially this town, she promises over and over, to herself and to Haley that they will return to Mount Rynda, if not the beautiful four-bedroom home they no longer own, by spring. In the meantime, she hopes her past won’t come back to haunt her. More importantly, she hopes it won’t be revealed to Haley, a past not even her husband knew about.
’Twenty years later, the weight was still there. Hidden, buried, but just as heavy. Compressed like coal into a diamond, or like an ugly, invasive irritant layered and wrapped and worried into a pearl.’
But, as we all know, wishing, hoping rarely change the course of events, and it’s only a matter of time before she begins to see familiar faces, and they see her. And as she struggles to prevent the inevitable, she finds that one of Haley’s classmates is the daughter of the one woman she’d hoped to avoid, the one who knew all of her secrets.
Around four years ago I read, and really enjoyed, Margo Orlando Littell’s debut novel Each Vagabond by Name, so I was happy when I saw that she had written a new book, and happier still when I received a copy. And once I began reading this, I didn’t want to put it down, finding myself pulled into these lives, sharing their hopes for resolution, and a better life ahead.
Pub Date: 28 May 2020
Many thanks for the ARC provided by University of New Orleans Press
Four Points was the small town in the Appalachian foothills of Pennsylvania where Robin Besher grew up, a place which she never wanted to return. Her memories of living there are the kind anyone would want to forget, but when her husband Ray dies unexpectedly, and she then learns the truth of their financial situation. Ray had invested all of the money into a few small run-down rental units in the place she never wanted to see again, let alone move back to. Made even harder to bear is the thought of taking her teenage daughter Haley with her, to move into one of these small ranch home ’wearing its careless vacancy like a gruesomely scarred, unpatched eye.’
Haley, at the age of thirteen, has never known such poverty, having lived her whole life in an exclusive community where places like this were completely foreign to her, so her reaction to their new housing situation leaves Robin feeling like a failure as a mother, feeling she should have known, and prevented this turn of events, somehow.
Determined to get them out of this situation, and especially this town, she promises over and over, to herself and to Haley that they will return to Mount Rynda, if not the beautiful four-bedroom home they no longer own, by spring. In the meantime, she hopes her past won’t come back to haunt her. More importantly, she hopes it won’t be revealed to Haley, a past not even her husband knew about.
’Twenty years later, the weight was still there. Hidden, buried, but just as heavy. Compressed like coal into a diamond, or like an ugly, invasive irritant layered and wrapped and worried into a pearl.’
But, as we all know, wishing, hoping rarely change the course of events, and it’s only a matter of time before she begins to see familiar faces, and they see her. And as she struggles to prevent the inevitable, she finds that one of Haley’s classmates is the daughter of the one woman she’d hoped to avoid, the one who knew all of her secrets.
Around four years ago I read, and really enjoyed, Margo Orlando Littell’s debut novel Each Vagabond by Name, so I was happy when I saw that she had written a new book, and happier still when I received a copy. And once I began reading this, I didn’t want to put it down, finding myself pulled into these lives, sharing their hopes for resolution, and a better life ahead.
Pub Date: 28 May 2020
Many thanks for the ARC provided by University of New Orleans Press
May 27, 2020
After the death of our main character Robin’s husband, she is left in some financial trouble. He leaves her some investment property that takes investing her time and she becomes a reluctant landowner to some rundown rentals. She is forced to return to her home town with her daughter.
The story is slow at times and seems like a simple story here, however, there are some darker themes to the story that Margo Orlando Littell handles with a lighter hand while provoking an emotional response from me for the characters. The strength is in the depth to the characters, their growth and the relationship between Robin and her friend from her past Cindy. I enjoyed seeing how they both developed through the story and learned something about themselves from each other. Both characters are convincing with their strength and courage but Cindy stood out for me. She is honest and tough with the way she lays it all out there for Robin showing her that it’s not about a better life but coming to terms with your past.
Now I did question one character and how convenient everything came together but sometimes this reader just needs to lighten up and enjoy a good ending.
I received a copy from the publisher on NetGalley
The story is slow at times and seems like a simple story here, however, there are some darker themes to the story that Margo Orlando Littell handles with a lighter hand while provoking an emotional response from me for the characters. The strength is in the depth to the characters, their growth and the relationship between Robin and her friend from her past Cindy. I enjoyed seeing how they both developed through the story and learned something about themselves from each other. Both characters are convincing with their strength and courage but Cindy stood out for me. She is honest and tough with the way she lays it all out there for Robin showing her that it’s not about a better life but coming to terms with your past.
Now I did question one character and how convenient everything came together but sometimes this reader just needs to lighten up and enjoy a good ending.
I received a copy from the publisher on NetGalley
July 7, 2020
If towns are the bodies to harbor secrets, then their houses are the bones to witness them.
Robin has left her life behind in Four Points, the Appalachian hometown of her childhood many years ago, and buried a secret past she'd rather not go back to which she traded for a more upscale life in the suburbs at Mount Rynda. With her marriage to Ryan, she isn't hurting for anything and enjoying amazing clothing, fancy health foods, beautiful furniture, and their daughter goes to a private school.
Then one day, Ryan suddenly dies and Robin is left with responsibilities and a pool of money she blows through too quickly. At her attorney's office, she now has to discuss Ryan's investment properties that would lead her back to Four Points, the place she has avoided for as long as possible.
To make months' end meet, Robin has to go to her childhood hometown and handle the properties her husband has rented out, meet the tenants, and collect rent. One of the properties will suit her and her daughter to stay in for a little while until everything is sorted out.
Some things are the same and never change in old towns like those people who have lived there long, don't move on, and oppose modern life. The forces of change and restoration and the dilapidated past meet head-on in Four Points as more and more investors come into town to take part in the upswing. Robin is baffled by the rundown places her husband invested in and the demands that need to be met to keep her tenants happy while using her elbows among the politics of landlords and investors around.
While she is getting situated fixing up rentals, her daughter meets kids in school that will connect to Robins' past life and things become instantly more difficult. In a gentle tug of war, Robin becomes more and more entangled with her old life, an old friend and someone she never wanted to see again, because these skeletons have long been buried.
In a whirlwind of events, Robin has to overcome her past, learn to be a stern landlord, fend to put food on the table, provide for her daughter, and heal the wounds of her childhood that are hitting her like a title wave. By the time the novel reaches its crescendo, there isn't a doubt left about Robin's abilities, but rather if there is a close to the rushing floodgates that have propelled the reader and characters through an emotional ride.
The Distance From Four Points is exquisite on the surface, poignant to read and packs an emotionally charged punch deep inside. The vulnerability of the characters easily rouses empathy as the dreadful events of teenage prostitution come to the surface and the lasting implications create new wounds all over again.
This novel is profoundly touching and will stay with you for a while after reading. Though there were moments I wanted to cringe about the age gap of the main character and her perpetrator especially towards the ending of the novel, I am ultimately very pleased with the redeeming prevail of Robin's characterization and tenaciousness.
This is a novel with a profound effect I would recommend reading if you enjoy emotionally charged novels with themes of trauma that end on a fortunate note.
Enjoy :)
More of my reviews here:
Through Novel Time & Distance
Robin has left her life behind in Four Points, the Appalachian hometown of her childhood many years ago, and buried a secret past she'd rather not go back to which she traded for a more upscale life in the suburbs at Mount Rynda. With her marriage to Ryan, she isn't hurting for anything and enjoying amazing clothing, fancy health foods, beautiful furniture, and their daughter goes to a private school.
Then one day, Ryan suddenly dies and Robin is left with responsibilities and a pool of money she blows through too quickly. At her attorney's office, she now has to discuss Ryan's investment properties that would lead her back to Four Points, the place she has avoided for as long as possible.
To make months' end meet, Robin has to go to her childhood hometown and handle the properties her husband has rented out, meet the tenants, and collect rent. One of the properties will suit her and her daughter to stay in for a little while until everything is sorted out.
Some things are the same and never change in old towns like those people who have lived there long, don't move on, and oppose modern life. The forces of change and restoration and the dilapidated past meet head-on in Four Points as more and more investors come into town to take part in the upswing. Robin is baffled by the rundown places her husband invested in and the demands that need to be met to keep her tenants happy while using her elbows among the politics of landlords and investors around.
While she is getting situated fixing up rentals, her daughter meets kids in school that will connect to Robins' past life and things become instantly more difficult. In a gentle tug of war, Robin becomes more and more entangled with her old life, an old friend and someone she never wanted to see again, because these skeletons have long been buried.
In a whirlwind of events, Robin has to overcome her past, learn to be a stern landlord, fend to put food on the table, provide for her daughter, and heal the wounds of her childhood that are hitting her like a title wave. By the time the novel reaches its crescendo, there isn't a doubt left about Robin's abilities, but rather if there is a close to the rushing floodgates that have propelled the reader and characters through an emotional ride.
The Distance From Four Points is exquisite on the surface, poignant to read and packs an emotionally charged punch deep inside. The vulnerability of the characters easily rouses empathy as the dreadful events of teenage prostitution come to the surface and the lasting implications create new wounds all over again.
This novel is profoundly touching and will stay with you for a while after reading. Though there were moments I wanted to cringe about the age gap of the main character and her perpetrator especially towards the ending of the novel, I am ultimately very pleased with the redeeming prevail of Robin's characterization and tenaciousness.
This is a novel with a profound effect I would recommend reading if you enjoy emotionally charged novels with themes of trauma that end on a fortunate note.
Enjoy :)
More of my reviews here:
Through Novel Time & Distance
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March 9, 2020
One of my absolute favorite things to experience when reading is a perfect balance of compelling character development and absorbing I-can't-put-this-book-down plot. The Distance From Four Points by Margo Orlando Littell hit that sweet spot for me. In this story about coming home, when home is the last place she wants to be, Robin has no choice but to confront her difficult past. The writing here was smooth and affecting. The story was both nerve wracking and hopeful. I felt every bit of Robin's loss, her anxiety, and the unrelenting pressure of her situation. I loved all the women in this book, their courage, their growth, and their complex relationships with each other. And though this story was ultimately not about him, I'm still angry at Ray for putting his family in that predicament. At one point I did put down my book to make my husband swear he would never make any investments without my knowledge and full agreement.
The Distance From Four Points was a gripping and memorable read. I won't forget Robin and Four Points. 4.5⭐s.
(I received a complementary copy in exchange for an honest review.)
The Distance From Four Points was a gripping and memorable read. I won't forget Robin and Four Points. 4.5⭐s.
(I received a complementary copy in exchange for an honest review.)
April 6, 2020
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com...
'She owned a piece of that place, a burden she had to carry again, twenty years after her escape.'
The past can’t be slipped out of that easily, Robin Besher learns this immediately after her husband Ray’s death. Having spent all their money on run down ‘slum’ rentals in the Appalachian town of Four Points, Robin has no choice but to return to the hometown she escaped and all the horrible memories of her seedy past. Worse, her thirteen year old daughter Haley will be ‘dragged away from everything she has ever known’ and Robin is helpless in doing anything to change that. Leaving behind a four-bedroom red brick Georgian colonial in the beautiful affluent Mount Rynda for the shock of what awaits them in their new home “a disgusting place” on Dandelion Drive, Robin is desperate to earn enough to breeze out of town… but how? She hadn’t realized just what Ray got them into.
Robin’s husband Ray never knew about the life she lived before him and that was just how she wanted it. No one shucks off the grime of their past by clinging to it, stewing in memories. Robin knew all to well how to be the kind of woman a man wanted; learned at the hungry hands of boys lined up waiting to be ‘serviced’. Her mentor, a tough girl named Cindy, who always smelled of cigarettes and hairspray, who wasn’t as pretty as her but induced fear in the boys who sought her out taught her well. With Cindy’s lead, she learned to hustle, the only choice she had in keeping herself from drowning, her only means of survival was giving boys and men what they came for. But there was more horror than prostitution, there was fooling herself into believing a certain man cared, and nothing is more dangerous than hope. Hope can be like an infection and lead a foolish girl into tragedy.
Everything she abandoned is waiting for her back at Four Points, there is no way she can make enough money to save the sinking ship she and her daughter Haley are trapped on. The rentals are falling apart, it shocks her that anyone would willingly live in such broken down, rock bottom places. Her tenants can’t afford their rent, their isn’t enough money to stretch on repairs, and squatters are a destructive force only adding to her woes. Then there is Tom, who advises her, helps with repairs here and there, and tells her things she doesn’t want to hear. She doesn’t want to be the type of person that blindly ignores living conditions, making money on the downtrodden but reality is grim. Things just keep getting worse.
Then there is Cindy, the past didn’t vanish when Robin was ‘plucked out of Four Points’ by Ray for a better, richer life. While she became a classier woman, one who knows how to move in social circles, how to treat herself with finer things and present herself with grace, Cindy was stuck in their hometown with only herself to create a life worth living. Cindy won’t let her forget who she was anymore than the locals, the men, one in particular who can make her blood freeze with the horrible tragedy she buried. Cindy doesn’t believe glossing up the truth changes it.
Robin’s daughter gets caught up in the life of a teenage mother whose own situation is too close to her own past. Good intentions sometimes bring more trouble than we bargain for, and she may no longer be able to protect her daughter’s delicate sensibilities. Cindy is as strong as ever, knows herself, and Robin may learn she isn’t as different as she thinks she is. The more you try to set yourself apart from others, the more life will remind you who you are. Did she ever truly escape Four Points?
This novel is full of characters who have no choice but to fight. Poverty begets poverty, and while someone may not be so lucky as to be ‘plucked out’ of their rotten circumstances, sometimes they can chose to stop being a victim of them. If you ever wondered how there can be such a disparity between the haves and the have nots, this novel is a window into the obstacles those without opportunity face. What makes you a good person? Is there ever a chance for redemption? Can someone decide to consciously forget those who used them, particularly branded as a certain type of girl, and go on making a life for themselves in the same small town? I think it was brilliant the author kept Cindy in the story-line. She is an example that the past doesn’t stand still nor does it vanish entirely. Shame, redemption, none of it is clean. The years can do a number even on those who don’t seem to deserve forgiveness. The cruelest judge is often ourselves.
Publication Date: May 28, 2020
University of New Orleans Press
'She owned a piece of that place, a burden she had to carry again, twenty years after her escape.'
The past can’t be slipped out of that easily, Robin Besher learns this immediately after her husband Ray’s death. Having spent all their money on run down ‘slum’ rentals in the Appalachian town of Four Points, Robin has no choice but to return to the hometown she escaped and all the horrible memories of her seedy past. Worse, her thirteen year old daughter Haley will be ‘dragged away from everything she has ever known’ and Robin is helpless in doing anything to change that. Leaving behind a four-bedroom red brick Georgian colonial in the beautiful affluent Mount Rynda for the shock of what awaits them in their new home “a disgusting place” on Dandelion Drive, Robin is desperate to earn enough to breeze out of town… but how? She hadn’t realized just what Ray got them into.
Robin’s husband Ray never knew about the life she lived before him and that was just how she wanted it. No one shucks off the grime of their past by clinging to it, stewing in memories. Robin knew all to well how to be the kind of woman a man wanted; learned at the hungry hands of boys lined up waiting to be ‘serviced’. Her mentor, a tough girl named Cindy, who always smelled of cigarettes and hairspray, who wasn’t as pretty as her but induced fear in the boys who sought her out taught her well. With Cindy’s lead, she learned to hustle, the only choice she had in keeping herself from drowning, her only means of survival was giving boys and men what they came for. But there was more horror than prostitution, there was fooling herself into believing a certain man cared, and nothing is more dangerous than hope. Hope can be like an infection and lead a foolish girl into tragedy.
Everything she abandoned is waiting for her back at Four Points, there is no way she can make enough money to save the sinking ship she and her daughter Haley are trapped on. The rentals are falling apart, it shocks her that anyone would willingly live in such broken down, rock bottom places. Her tenants can’t afford their rent, their isn’t enough money to stretch on repairs, and squatters are a destructive force only adding to her woes. Then there is Tom, who advises her, helps with repairs here and there, and tells her things she doesn’t want to hear. She doesn’t want to be the type of person that blindly ignores living conditions, making money on the downtrodden but reality is grim. Things just keep getting worse.
Then there is Cindy, the past didn’t vanish when Robin was ‘plucked out of Four Points’ by Ray for a better, richer life. While she became a classier woman, one who knows how to move in social circles, how to treat herself with finer things and present herself with grace, Cindy was stuck in their hometown with only herself to create a life worth living. Cindy won’t let her forget who she was anymore than the locals, the men, one in particular who can make her blood freeze with the horrible tragedy she buried. Cindy doesn’t believe glossing up the truth changes it.
Robin’s daughter gets caught up in the life of a teenage mother whose own situation is too close to her own past. Good intentions sometimes bring more trouble than we bargain for, and she may no longer be able to protect her daughter’s delicate sensibilities. Cindy is as strong as ever, knows herself, and Robin may learn she isn’t as different as she thinks she is. The more you try to set yourself apart from others, the more life will remind you who you are. Did she ever truly escape Four Points?
This novel is full of characters who have no choice but to fight. Poverty begets poverty, and while someone may not be so lucky as to be ‘plucked out’ of their rotten circumstances, sometimes they can chose to stop being a victim of them. If you ever wondered how there can be such a disparity between the haves and the have nots, this novel is a window into the obstacles those without opportunity face. What makes you a good person? Is there ever a chance for redemption? Can someone decide to consciously forget those who used them, particularly branded as a certain type of girl, and go on making a life for themselves in the same small town? I think it was brilliant the author kept Cindy in the story-line. She is an example that the past doesn’t stand still nor does it vanish entirely. Shame, redemption, none of it is clean. The years can do a number even on those who don’t seem to deserve forgiveness. The cruelest judge is often ourselves.
Publication Date: May 28, 2020
University of New Orleans Press
May 22, 2020
Publishers Synopsis: Soon after her husband’s tragic death, Robin Besher makes a startling discovery: He had recklessly blown through their entire savings on decrepit rentals in Four Points, the Appalachian town Robin grew up in. Forced to return after decades, Robin and her daughter, Haley, set out to renovate the properties as quickly as possible―before anyone exposes Robin’s secret past as a teenage prostitute. Disaster strikes when Haley befriends a troubled teen mother, hurling Robin back into a past she’d worked so hard to escape. Robin must reshape her idea of home or risk repeating her greatest mistakes. Margo Orlando Littell, author of Each Vagabond by Name, tells an enthralling and nuanced story about family, womanhood, and coming to terms with a left-behind past.
Review:
**Trigger Warning: This book and review discusses, sometimes in graphic detail, the subjects of rape, sexual assault, prostitution, infant death, physical abuse and domestic abuse**
Despite the confronting trigger warning I didn’t find this book to be overly *heavy* with the topics previously mentioned. There was enough detail to outline the scene, but not enough to have me triggered or avoiding the book temporarily (Hello “A Little Life). The main character, Robin, sure has lived a crazy life and when circumstances have her, without any other choice, returning to her childhood town that she has tried to escape from her entire life she finally has to face the demons that she has been running from.
The thing I loved most about this book was the character development. It’s not often that you see a pretentious, materialistic middle aged woman changing her ways (Trust me- I know plenty of them *eyeroll*). But I loved reading about Robins journey happening incredibly fast over a very short amount of time.
Unlike some other books I’ve read previously (The Silent Treatment) this story does not leave you in the dark about character secrets and stories. You learn very early on about Robins dark past, and throughout the book you can experience genuine anxiety along with her as she encounters people from her past, or present and must disclose her dark past. I love it when an author does this because it helps you feel what the character is feeling and empathise with them along the way.
I found it hard, however, to feel like I could trust Vincent in the end. Yes he seems nice and all and never asked for anything in return, but it seems he’s incredibly selfish (whilst being selfless) and might just be doing good deeds to satisfy his own conscience and moral guilt for having assualted/raped Robyn in the past. I dunno, it just seems a bit manipulative to me, and his ways clearly havent changed. I that people who do bad things aren’t always bad people, but when it’s about topics like these I do find it hard to differentiate and ultimately nod along and go “Oh yes he’s clearly changed his ways, he’s not a bad person anymore even though he raped somebody in the past”. I think that people who have experienced this kind of abuse, whether psychological or sexual may have some trouble with this book and Vincents character in particular. Coming from a victim herself. But in saying that I still give this book five stars. I couldn’t put it down at all and read it in about 7 hours total. Books that have me doing that always get the five stars.
My sincerest thanks to Netgalley and University of New Orleans Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
5/5 Stars.
Review:
**Trigger Warning: This book and review discusses, sometimes in graphic detail, the subjects of rape, sexual assault, prostitution, infant death, physical abuse and domestic abuse**
Despite the confronting trigger warning I didn’t find this book to be overly *heavy* with the topics previously mentioned. There was enough detail to outline the scene, but not enough to have me triggered or avoiding the book temporarily (Hello “A Little Life). The main character, Robin, sure has lived a crazy life and when circumstances have her, without any other choice, returning to her childhood town that she has tried to escape from her entire life she finally has to face the demons that she has been running from.
The thing I loved most about this book was the character development. It’s not often that you see a pretentious, materialistic middle aged woman changing her ways (Trust me- I know plenty of them *eyeroll*). But I loved reading about Robins journey happening incredibly fast over a very short amount of time.
Unlike some other books I’ve read previously (The Silent Treatment) this story does not leave you in the dark about character secrets and stories. You learn very early on about Robins dark past, and throughout the book you can experience genuine anxiety along with her as she encounters people from her past, or present and must disclose her dark past. I love it when an author does this because it helps you feel what the character is feeling and empathise with them along the way.
I found it hard, however, to feel like I could trust Vincent in the end. Yes he seems nice and all and never asked for anything in return, but it seems he’s incredibly selfish (whilst being selfless) and might just be doing good deeds to satisfy his own conscience and moral guilt for having assualted/raped Robyn in the past. I dunno, it just seems a bit manipulative to me, and his ways clearly havent changed. I that people who do bad things aren’t always bad people, but when it’s about topics like these I do find it hard to differentiate and ultimately nod along and go “Oh yes he’s clearly changed his ways, he’s not a bad person anymore even though he raped somebody in the past”. I think that people who have experienced this kind of abuse, whether psychological or sexual may have some trouble with this book and Vincents character in particular. Coming from a victim herself. But in saying that I still give this book five stars. I couldn’t put it down at all and read it in about 7 hours total. Books that have me doing that always get the five stars.
My sincerest thanks to Netgalley and University of New Orleans Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
5/5 Stars.
June 5, 2020
Margo Orlando Littell’s new book, The Distance from Four Points, is the story of Robin and her daughter Haley moving back to Four Points, the run-down town of Robin’s teen years, after Robin’s husband passes away. The book centers on Robin adjusting to a new life without money and status, and also coming to terms with the difficult and very sad circumstances of her teen life. In the process, she discovers how to open up about her past, forgive herself, and find a new life without fear and shame.While I don’t think Robin’s teen life and circumstances are super common, I do think that a lot of people will relate to wanting to hide their shame of various negative personal histories. This book shows how it is possible to confront those bad memories instead of burying them, and how to have relationships based on honesty instead of a false front. For those reasons, I really liked Littell’s book.
I did feel that Cindy’s swearing was a bit extreme, but that’s ok, and I didn’t really understand why Vincent bought the big house and let Dana live in it, but maybe I missed the explanation. Additionally, it is very possible some people might prefer some kind of trigger warning for the book, for reasons that readers will understand.
Other than that, there were some phrases that must be distinctly from the author’s region, like yinz and K-turns that puzzled me and could have had some reference when first used. Having been born in Pennsylvania (but long gone now), I think she is referring to what I remember locals saying: “yun’s,” kind of like “y’all” down south. But I’ve never in my life heard of a K-turn and it took me about 3 mentions in the book to figure out she mean 3-point turn - I think!? LOL, I'm a California girl now!
Overall a good read & I wish the author good luck with her new release! I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
Read
May 28, 2020The Distance From Four Points is a novel about returning home. Robin Besher’s husband has died and left her with nothing but decrepit rental properties in the small Appalachian town of Four Points where she grew up. Her only choice is to move back with her teen-aged daughter. She has a past she is ashamed of, however, and all she wants to do is fix up the properties and make enough money to return to the much-fancier town where she lived with her husband. This requires that she figure out how to deal with tenants and care for falling-apart rental units with basically no money. Against her wishes, she keeps running into people she once knew, and her plans to leave falter. Robin is a sympathetic character as she is forced to learn new skills and confront her past. Her story is utterly engrossing, and the novel is a moving examination of home and belonging.
May 7, 2020
If you're looking for light easy reading this is not the book for you. Who says you can't go home again? You can, and it's just as bad as it was the first time. Robin was born in Four Points, a dead-end former mining town where she spent her first nineteen years. Her mother was a junkie who left her on her own and Robin survived with help from her friend Cindy and Cindy's mother. ( If you could call becoming a teen-age prostitute in order to survive ""help"). Both Cindy and Robin sold sex in the basement of Cindy's house.
Robin becomes pregnant by an older businessman who visits Four Points. She bears a son who dies of SIDS , breaking her heart. Working later as a waitress, Robin meets Roy, a contractor, who marries her and takes her to live in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb. They have a daughter named Haley. Robin discovers how easy it is to adjust to luxury. Then Roy dies in an accident and she finds herself broke because he has invested everything in a number of houses and apartments in Four Corners.
This book is heartbreaking in its description of poverty and hand'-to-mouth existence. The food, the dirt, the odors, the roaches, the rodents are real enough to make you see and smell them. Robin's efforts to clean up these properties and rent them out is backbreaking and expensive. She want to to make enough being a slumlord to buy her way back to her suburb and bring her daughter back to a safe place, but this proves impossible.
Seeing how Robin survives and changes and ultimately appreciates her own strengths is the strength of this novel. Littell, having grown up in Appalachia, brings a realistic view into how many people in poverty fight to survive.. You will never look at a Walmart the same way again. This is a fine book and worth your time.
Robin becomes pregnant by an older businessman who visits Four Points. She bears a son who dies of SIDS , breaking her heart. Working later as a waitress, Robin meets Roy, a contractor, who marries her and takes her to live in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb. They have a daughter named Haley. Robin discovers how easy it is to adjust to luxury. Then Roy dies in an accident and she finds herself broke because he has invested everything in a number of houses and apartments in Four Corners.
This book is heartbreaking in its description of poverty and hand'-to-mouth existence. The food, the dirt, the odors, the roaches, the rodents are real enough to make you see and smell them. Robin's efforts to clean up these properties and rent them out is backbreaking and expensive. She want to to make enough being a slumlord to buy her way back to her suburb and bring her daughter back to a safe place, but this proves impossible.
Seeing how Robin survives and changes and ultimately appreciates her own strengths is the strength of this novel. Littell, having grown up in Appalachia, brings a realistic view into how many people in poverty fight to survive.. You will never look at a Walmart the same way again. This is a fine book and worth your time.
Read
July 11, 2020The author lives in the town where I work as a librarian and has generously donated her time to us before, so I couldn't write anything objective about this book or even assign it a star rating, other than to say it's definitely worth your time and its main character Robin Besher will stay with you for a long time.
September 10, 2020
Margo Orlando Littell’s novel was a real experience for me – it was one of those books that crept up on me slowly, and revealed layers of meaning that I was not expecting when I started reading. It begins with a simple premise: Robin and her teenage daughter are forced by circumstance to move from their comfortable lives in suburbia into one of the decrepit rental properties her husband bought before his death in Robin’s home town of Four Points. At first I was slightly taken aback that the ‘secrets’ of Robin’s past were almost casually revealed in the opening chapters – we learn very early on that she had been a sex worker as a teenager – but it gradually became clearer and clearer that I had underestimated the author and the book itself. This is not a sensationalist account of the past coming back to haunt a reformed character: it is a different kind of reckoning, a lesson in acceptance and finding peace. As with the very best fiction, I learned a lot from reading this book.
As the story develops, so the language becomes more nuanced and descriptive, and from my initial impressions of this being quite a straightforward book, I moved towards being both emotionally and intellectually challenged by the characters and the themes of this novel. I have to admit, I did not warm to Robin at first: I found her behaviour quite hard to fathom, and her rejection of her former friend, Cindy, when they first meet again after twenty years or so, actually made me feel quite antagonistic towards her. However, as their relationship develops and their lives become more entangled, I found myself beginning to understand both women, in a way that reflects the depth that Littell manages to create in her characters. Robin and Cindy became real to me, and Cindy in particular provides the novel with both humour and heart, without any cloying sentimentality. Other characters, too, are much more than they first appear: the landlords, the ex-lover, the teen mum – each is three-dimensional, complex, intriguing. These are characters who are only familiar on the surface – Littell reveals their uniqueness and, I think, in doing so, questions the reader’s own assumptions alongside Robin’s.
The descriptions of the crumbling, decaying properties and the physical labour needed to repair them to even a semi-acceptable level were another highlight of the book for me, as well. I was very interested to find out that in her research, Littell unwittingly became a landlord herself (you can read about her experience here) – and her prose certainly has an authentic ring to it. The tension between the gentrification process and the landlords’ need to make a living was also something I had never considered. The author’s determination to show every side of the argument is more than just commendable – it is REAL, it reflects the messiness of life in all its complications, rejecting false dichotomies and revelling in the prismatic, multi-faceted nature of human experience.
I haven’t read many novels that have sent me on a similar trajectory of starting out complacent and then catching myself and realising I had grossly underestimated the book, and it was a really interesting experience. This book is so much more than it seems, and it surprised me at every turn. I would be very interested to read her first novel, Each Vagabond by Name, and will certainly be keeping an eye out for more works by this quietly subversive author.
As the story develops, so the language becomes more nuanced and descriptive, and from my initial impressions of this being quite a straightforward book, I moved towards being both emotionally and intellectually challenged by the characters and the themes of this novel. I have to admit, I did not warm to Robin at first: I found her behaviour quite hard to fathom, and her rejection of her former friend, Cindy, when they first meet again after twenty years or so, actually made me feel quite antagonistic towards her. However, as their relationship develops and their lives become more entangled, I found myself beginning to understand both women, in a way that reflects the depth that Littell manages to create in her characters. Robin and Cindy became real to me, and Cindy in particular provides the novel with both humour and heart, without any cloying sentimentality. Other characters, too, are much more than they first appear: the landlords, the ex-lover, the teen mum – each is three-dimensional, complex, intriguing. These are characters who are only familiar on the surface – Littell reveals their uniqueness and, I think, in doing so, questions the reader’s own assumptions alongside Robin’s.
The descriptions of the crumbling, decaying properties and the physical labour needed to repair them to even a semi-acceptable level were another highlight of the book for me, as well. I was very interested to find out that in her research, Littell unwittingly became a landlord herself (you can read about her experience here) – and her prose certainly has an authentic ring to it. The tension between the gentrification process and the landlords’ need to make a living was also something I had never considered. The author’s determination to show every side of the argument is more than just commendable – it is REAL, it reflects the messiness of life in all its complications, rejecting false dichotomies and revelling in the prismatic, multi-faceted nature of human experience.
I haven’t read many novels that have sent me on a similar trajectory of starting out complacent and then catching myself and realising I had grossly underestimated the book, and it was a really interesting experience. This book is so much more than it seems, and it surprised me at every turn. I would be very interested to read her first novel, Each Vagabond by Name, and will certainly be keeping an eye out for more works by this quietly subversive author.
December 19, 2021
To see my full review on The Bossy Bookworm, or to find out about Bossy reviews and Greedy Reading Lists as soon as they're posted, please see The Distance from Four Points.
3.5 stars for me.
In Margo Orlando Littell's slim novel The Distance from Four Points, Robin Besher's husband has died, and she's desperately trying to come to terms with the tragedy.
But she's soon faced with issues beyond missing him: he had secretly sunk all of their savings into ramshackle rental houses in her Appalachian hometown, which she'd fled decades earlier. She has no clue as to what his intentions were, or why he would go against what he must have known she would have wanted.
Angry, confused, and filled with dread, Robin drags her daughter Haley back to Four Points in hopes of renovating the houses quickly, selling them, and cutting ties to the town forever.
The story frequently hearkens back to dark, disturbing, haunting scenes from Robin's youth in Four Points, and much of her present-day energy is spent coping with filth, brokenness, her continued desperation about money, and her never-ending scrabbling to make ends meet.
Robin comes face to face with some of her most enduring past horrors, juggles her abandoned past and carefully curated present identities, and must make peace with the idea that her "old" and "new" selves are one and the same, and that without her past desperation, she wouldn't have found the strength to persist and take care of her daughter now.
Robin inadvertently connects to the unlikeliest of people in the town, some of whom were part of her dark, frequently pain-filled youth. In The Distance from Four Points, Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home.
Find hundreds of reviews and lots of roundups of my favorite books on the blog: Bossy Bookworm
Follow me on Instagram! @bossybookwormblog
Or Facebook! The Bossy Bookworm
3.5 stars for me.
In Margo Orlando Littell's slim novel The Distance from Four Points, Robin Besher's husband has died, and she's desperately trying to come to terms with the tragedy.
But she's soon faced with issues beyond missing him: he had secretly sunk all of their savings into ramshackle rental houses in her Appalachian hometown, which she'd fled decades earlier. She has no clue as to what his intentions were, or why he would go against what he must have known she would have wanted.
Angry, confused, and filled with dread, Robin drags her daughter Haley back to Four Points in hopes of renovating the houses quickly, selling them, and cutting ties to the town forever.
The story frequently hearkens back to dark, disturbing, haunting scenes from Robin's youth in Four Points, and much of her present-day energy is spent coping with filth, brokenness, her continued desperation about money, and her never-ending scrabbling to make ends meet.
Robin comes face to face with some of her most enduring past horrors, juggles her abandoned past and carefully curated present identities, and must make peace with the idea that her "old" and "new" selves are one and the same, and that without her past desperation, she wouldn't have found the strength to persist and take care of her daughter now.
Robin inadvertently connects to the unlikeliest of people in the town, some of whom were part of her dark, frequently pain-filled youth. In The Distance from Four Points, Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home.
Find hundreds of reviews and lots of roundups of my favorite books on the blog: Bossy Bookworm
Follow me on Instagram! @bossybookwormblog
Or Facebook! The Bossy Bookworm
October 26, 2022
This was okay. Not for me, unfortunately. Too gritty and depressing. It deals with the rental real estate market in a down on its heels Pennsylvania town where - by and large - men snap up crumbling houses and become slumlords. They have no intention of fixing up the houses or sinking any substantial money into them to improve the living conditions for the tenants or improve the overall health and well-being of the town - they are in it to gouge their tenants.
The story centers on Robin who finds herself back home in Four Points as one of these slumlords through a set of unfortunate circumstances. Robin has a very ugly history in Four Points, not to mention a teenage daughter who really shouldn't have to deal with her mother's unpleasant past.
I also felt like there were too many issues left unresolved after all was said and done. What happened with her best friend from Mt. Rhynda? Did she pitch in? Why wasn't Cindy invited to live with Robin? What became of the other slumlords and Four Points? I needed some closure on some of this.
A different kind of story and not what I thought I was going to get looking at the cover - although, it IS a dandelion, I guess.
The story centers on Robin who finds herself back home in Four Points as one of these slumlords through a set of unfortunate circumstances. Robin has a very ugly history in Four Points, not to mention a teenage daughter who really shouldn't have to deal with her mother's unpleasant past.
I also felt like there were too many issues left unresolved after all was said and done. What happened with her best friend from Mt. Rhynda? Did she pitch in? Why wasn't Cindy invited to live with Robin? What became of the other slumlords and Four Points? I needed some closure on some of this.
A different kind of story and not what I thought I was going to get looking at the cover - although, it IS a dandelion, I guess.
September 1, 2020
This is the story of Robin. Her husband has died and left her with a lot of debt and a lot of run down rental properties in a town she never wanted to return to. She has to sell her house in her ideal neighborhood and move into one of the ramshackle apartments to try and pull her life back together. Moving back to Four Points with her young daughter brings up a past she tried so hard to escape. What she finds is a place that not only brings her back to the hardest time in her life, but also a place for a fresh start.
I was so so excited to get my hands on this book becuase it was written by a friend of mine. This is her second novel, and I applaud her accomplishment. She and I worked on a house in a town just like the one in this novel together and flipped and sold it. It was quite the adventure and I am glad it lead her to keep writing books about small town America. She and I grew up in a town very similar to the ones in her books.
It is a good story about a hard subject. Poverty, slumlords, the world of rental properties.....all a very harsh reality in the place where Margo and I grew up. I think she does a good job of bringing the reality of that situation to light by also spinning a good outcome for Robin. Good mix.
I was so so excited to get my hands on this book becuase it was written by a friend of mine. This is her second novel, and I applaud her accomplishment. She and I worked on a house in a town just like the one in this novel together and flipped and sold it. It was quite the adventure and I am glad it lead her to keep writing books about small town America. She and I grew up in a town very similar to the ones in her books.
It is a good story about a hard subject. Poverty, slumlords, the world of rental properties.....all a very harsh reality in the place where Margo and I grew up. I think she does a good job of bringing the reality of that situation to light by also spinning a good outcome for Robin. Good mix.
June 16, 2020
I read this book in two days. The plot is is propulsive and compelling, the characters are sympathetic and fully rounded, and the arc is satisfying and believable. A well crafted story about class and trauma, the emotional costs of trying to hide secrets about one's past, and the possibility for forgiveness (of oneself and others). It's the story of Robin, who is forced to return to the town where she grew up, the place she couldn't leave fast enough and would have starved rather than gone back to if it weren't for her daughter. It's the story of one woman but it also feels universal, the story of trying to reconcile our many identities and taking off our masks to reveal who we really are. It's the story of two estranged friends who become friends again. It is also the story of a place and by extension all the rustbelt towns whose grandeur has faded. The town, like our heroine, might just be given a second chance, and I love the parallel the author makes in this gritty but ultimately hopeful novel.
May 24, 2020
This novel is so, so much more than a “small town” or a “you-can’t-go-home-again” story. The Distance From Four Points is a story of hard relationships. The ones with our true selves, our past, our necessary friendships, our chosen and given families, and the paths we never thought we’d choose. This is a beautiful book about an incredible woman, Robin, and her commitment to give her daughter the best life possible under unsuspected hardships. As someone who stares helplessly at her own cracked drywall, Robin is a flawed and resilient modern heroine. A protagonist that sneaks into your heart. My favorite aspect of Ms. Littell’s work is the truth and challenges that she brings to relationships. There are no simple meet-cute or ever-after romances. There are no pinky-promise female friendships. There are no breezy mother-daughter bonds. But all of these achingly real characters and their flaws make the story sparkle. A marvelous read that I can’t recommend enough.
January 27, 2021
I got a copy of this book from my book club. The author lived locally (at the time)and I went to her virtual book launch in 2020 before I had read the book. I enjoyed the story, and I found myself pulling for Robin, the main character as she struggled to make peace with her past and provide a future for herself and her daughter. Robin’s husband dies suddenly in a tragic accident and leaves her with no option but to return to the hometown she had fled 20 years before. It’s a short book, and I would have liked to read more about how she ended up in the circumstances she did, before she fled her hometown, and how she actually managed to transform herself into a privileged wife and mother in a fancy neighborhood. I also would have liked to read more about Dana, the young teenage mother she befriends and decided to help, seeing so much of her own past in this young girl’s circumstances. So my only criticism is that I wanted more!
June 11, 2020
In this beautifully written book, full of raw, gritty, reality and tender grace, a woman must face the ghosts of her past that she has fought hard to bury in the shadows. By doing so, she finds strength, healing, freedom, connection, and hope, in the last place she would ever have expected to find it. I was sad to see the story end and have to say good-bye to the deeply flawed, but inspiring and resilient women in the book. As a psychiatrist, I was also deeply impressed by Littell's ability to compassionately portray the effects of trauma, and how it is only by facing our past that we can fully move forward.
July 27, 2020
Robin's youth in Four Points was "an ugly time in [her]life." Which is an understatement. She leaves and vows never to return- but has to return years later under sad circumstances. And she has to face the demons of her past. Four Points is depressing and gritty, and Robin suffers set back after set back. All the while she is trying to protect her own daughter from the troubles which waylaid Robin in her youth. This is a quick and enjoyable read, and some of the characters are very well-written. But the ending seems a bit unrealistic, as it has the formulaic man with who money saves the day....
August 29, 2022
a simple life kind of story - reminded me of people I knew in college in Pennsylvania & the type of more rural lives they may have grown up in. great character development, but felt predictable in a lot of ways. but a great quick read that reminds us there are many ways we can overcome and empower ourselves.
June 24, 2020
Great book
I really enjoyed reading this book. The story was nicely told and I could not put this book down. Having spent a few years living near the foot hills of the Allegheny Mountains this story seemed so real for me.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The story was nicely told and I could not put this book down. Having spent a few years living near the foot hills of the Allegheny Mountains this story seemed so real for me.
June 30, 2020
I liked this book, not loved it. It was a quick easy read and refreshing in that way. The ending was redeeming and I was thankful for that. I purchased this book because so many people gave it 5 stars. Not sure why it didn't do that for me.
May 7, 2022
Literally nothing happens for the first 148 out of 247 pages (except home renovations), then the plot kind of picks up but it's rushed, superficial and wrapped up in a cliché with a bow. All these 5 star ratings are very suspicious 👀
June 5, 2020
Great read! A chilling story of secrets, friendship and perseverance. Margo Littell reminds us we never know what can happen when we face our demons!
June 28, 2020
Outstanding. I like complex stories about strong, gritty women triumphing over adversity. This one is excellent.
July 14, 2020
I almost stopped reading this book because I felt it was simple and sordid. I’m glad I kept on. The progress the book’s heroine makes is worth the journey.
July 21, 2020
Super trite book - if you like Hallmark movies that tie up with a red bow at the end - this is your book.
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