Kristin Hannah

So, with two books ready to publish, I've been reading to find comparable authors - someone who writes like me - and I think I found one. Kristin Hannah.

After I read Firefly Lane in July, I saw some similarity but that book was about sisters, which mine are not. I pretty much forgot about it. Then in August a beta reader for Peg's Story: Detours suggested The Great Alone as a comp. Once I started reading it, I realized I'd already read of one of Hannah's books and felt the similarity more strongly. So I kept reading to figure out why we both had that impression. In the last month or so I've read eleven of Kristin Hannah's books and I haven't found one I didn't like.

She does a lot more description than I do - I tend to be very sparing with a few key details to create the mood whereas she has made me want to visit the northern coast with her vivid description of settings. However, after reading so many of her books, I understand why the beta reader and I both sensed a similarity - it's in our characters and their journeys. I definitely recommend reading her books - all of them - and if you already know you like hers, try mine. I think you'll like Running Away: Maggie's Story and Peg's Story: Detours.

Here's my brief review for The Great Alone:

Kristin Hannah excels at developing her characters and exploring mother-daughter relationships with vivid backdrops. In this case, a teenage girl tells the story of her co-dependent parents as her Vietnam vet father sinks further into his PTSD and abusive behaviors in the long winter nights of 1970's Alaska. A page-turner.

Review: The Good Neighbor by Cathryn Grant

Wow! A real page-turner with multiple twists and a great ending - happily ever after or chilling? The story is told in multiple voices, each having separate chapters so that's easy to follow. At first I was annoyed by the chapters in the voice of the nosy neighbor who seemed to think it was all about her when the new neighbor's daughter goes missing. However, as the suspense built, her role did indeed become essential to the story. Do NOT read the ending first!

Review: Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

I read an uncorrected digital copy through NetGalley. The book will be released in January and can now be pre-ordered.

My review: Read this book when you have time to put everything else aside. As narration shifts back and forth between Anna, an artist from the 1940's who left behind a bizarre mural, and Morgan, the current-day young woman who has been rescued to restore the mural though she has no training for the work, the mystery of why Anna inserted such strange elements into the painting intensifies. There's also the mystery of why blonde Morgan was chosen for this project.

Readers are rewarded with a satisfactory solution to all mysteries.