My book club chose a favorite author for our October read. Lauren K. Denton’s books have always generated great conversations, but I think the discussion around A Place to Land was our best yet. It received a unanimous thumbs-up from my group.
Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend, Alabama, since a night forty years ago that stole Trudy’s voice and cemented Violet’s role as her sister’s fierce and loyal protector. Now Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking through notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of the one great love she gave up to keep her sister safe.
Eighteen-year-old Maya knows where everyone else belongs, but she’s been searching for her own place since her grandmother died seven years ago. Moving in and out of strangers’ houses has left her exhausted. After seeing a flyer on a gas station window for a place called Sugar Bend, Maya chooses to follow the strange pull she feels and finds herself on the doorstep of an art shop called Two Sisters.
When a boat rises to the surface of Little River in the middle of the night, the present and no-longer-buried past collide, and the future becomes uncertain for Maya, Violet, and Trudy. As history creeps continuously closer to the present and old secrets come to light, the sisters must decide to face the truth of what happened that night forty years ago, or risk losing each other and those they’ve come to love.
Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren K. Denton now lives with her husband, two daughters, and one fluffy dog in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, relationships, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books.
My Impressions:
How do family secrets determine relationship dynamics? Can you sacrifice without losing your identity? These questions and more were asked in A Place to Land by Lauren K. Denton. Women’s fiction set in Alabama, this is truly a novel of the South. From the description of the river that runs through the town of Sugar Bend, to the small town feel, to the characters, you know you are in the South from the first page — and that’s a good thing. The story revolves around two 60ish women, Violet and Trudy, who are bound together by more than sisterhood. Their stories and those of supporting characters unfold as Denton spins a tale of lost opportunities, regret, and a glimmer of hope for a different future. I loved all the characters, but especially Violet who gave up so much for her younger sister. Should she have? That’s a question for readers to ponder. My book club talked about that a lot. The underlying mystery that is slowly revealed kept us turning the pages. We were all surprised by the ending, and by the time the book was finished we wanted much more. The author gave us clues to how the characters’ journeys would progress, and we loved putting our own spin on it, finishing with a most happily-ever-after.
I loved A Place to Land and recommend it, especially for book clubs.
Recommended.
Great for Book Clubs.
Audience: Adults.
(I read this book through the Kindle Unlimited program. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
This is a great book, I also enjoyed it, Beckie.