Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ebook ARC of this new novel, by an author new to me. Viola Shipman is the pen name for memoirist Wade Rouse. Rouse uses the pen name Viola Shipman for his fiction to honor his grandmother, and traces of that sentiment are found in this new novel. Grandmothers seem to have a lasting impact on those of you lucky enough to have known yours.

I requested this book from NetGalley because of the description posted on the website:

Emma Page grew up the black sheep in a bookish household, raised to believe that fine literature is the only worthy type of fiction. Her parents, self-proclaimed “serious” authors who run their own vanity press, The Mighty Pages, mingle in highbrow social circles that look down on anything too popular or mainstream, while her sister, Jess, is a powerful social media influencer whose stylish reviews can make or break a novel.

So, being an avid reader who tried to raise my daughters in a “bookish household,” I felt like this book was crying out for me to read it.

This book is a homage to books, to the world of publishing, to readers everywhere, and even to writers or people who think they have a novel in them. To people who sit in dead silence reading in the time between dressing for dinner and actually leaving to go to dinner. To people who always have a book ready to go for when they finish the book they are then reading. To people who can quote lines from their favorite books (in case you are wondering, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”).

One main difference between the Page family’s reading lives and the reading lives of my household is that we read everything, not just “fine literature,” and we enjoy all sorts of books, nonfiction as well as fiction, even—gasp—commercial fiction, not just literary fiction.

Since Goodreads has no method for granting half-stars in their rating system, I was relegated to giving this new novel 4 stars, but as I finished reading it, I was feeling more of a 4.5 stars rating. Why not round up to 5 stars, you ask?

First of all, I almost didn’t read this book at all. The prologue completely threw me for a loop. It is rather ironic that the main character’s mother, the co-owner of a small publishing house, says that, “My parents always hated prologues in a book, especially my mother. ‘Such a waste of time…Just start at the beginning.’” Yet, this book does not do that. It starts with a prologue that didn’t capture me at all.

When I finished the prologue, I turned to the end of the book to read the author’s notes. The writing there seemed so coherent and straightforward, I decided to go back to the “beginning” of the book (not the prologue again) and give it another go. This time I was swept into the world of Emma Page, her sister, her parents, and her favorite place in the world, her grandmother’s cottage on the shore of Lake Michigan, lovingly nicknamed “the Eyebrow Cottage.”

I loved the story of Emma and her coming of age journey of finding her place in life as a college graduate, albeit one who wrote an entire novel while obtaining that degree. It’s a very “of the moment” novel, with lots of references to pop culture and currently trending topics. The love Emma has for Gigi, her grandmother who is the anchor of her family, is so rich and stirring. I also loved how smart the main characters are. They may have agendas that the reader may or may not agree with, but they are smart, well-read people.

When the plotting and scheming begins, however, I found some of the steps in the plan to snare the villain somewhat incredible. So, that, along with the wonky prologue, caused me to give this 4 stars.

I’m happy to have discovered a new author and I look forward to reading more of Shipman’s fiction, and some of Rouse’s nonfiction. Now, if only I could have a cottage on the shore of Lake Michigan to spend a week reading in the warm sun and the cool breezes coming off of the lake!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Harlequin!