Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

First, thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Terry, through her publisher Penguin Random House, for the ARC of this new novel, to be published on August 19, 2025.

This is Pamela Terry’s third novel, and I feel that her work becomes stronger and stronger with each new book. She is a true Southerner, and her books are set in her home state of Georgia. She is a master storyteller in the style of so many great Southern authors. Her prose is exquisite with vivid imagery and sensory details that make the words jump off the page. The reader is assaulted by sights, sounds, smells, and the tastes of the South. Terry’s books are not beach reads or chick lit by any means; her sentences are well-developed and her vocabulary would occasionally challenge even a former English teacher like myself.

I reviewed her debut novel, The Sweet Taste of Muscadines, in 2011, where I wrote about Terry’s Southern roots combined with her love of the Scottish highlands.

In my 2022 review of her sophomore work, When the Moon Turns Blue, I noted the imagery and sensory details as well, but also how smart and clever it seemed.

In Terry’s newest work, Through an Open Window, Terry’s quill has sharpened even more, and the story takes us from 1956 to present day. One reoccurring sensory detail is the floral aroma of Arpège perfume. That combined with the lush descriptions of the woods around main character Margaret’s childhood home, the pecan grove belonging to her then neighbors and future husband, the beautiful flowers planted by her late husband in the early years and now the flowers planted by her son Tom, is akin to attending a garden show with all the best specimens on display.

This story begins with grief and loss, which Margaret experienced as a very young toddler, and then centers on the much more painful loss of her beloved husband Lawrence. This is not a sad book, however, and in the end, Margaret gains far more than she ever lost.

In another review recently posted on Goodreads, the reviewer said that she thought there were too many characters and it was hard to keep track of the changing points of view. With all due respect, I disagree. The main storyline runs through Margaret’s immediate family: Margaret and her late husband Lawrence, twin sons Lawrie and Tom, daughter Agatha (nicknamed Mouse by a select group of people). There are other characters that play minor roles: Margaret’s best friend Harriet and her adorable chihuahua Gatsby, Lawrie’s significant other Emlynn, Tom’s soon-to-be ex-wife Megan, and Mouse’s husband Nick.

We also get a fair dose of Kitty, Mouse’s wealthy and over-the-top client who just happened to be a friend from third grade that Mouse doesn’t remember at all. In a book rich with magical realism, it is Kitty who snaps us back into the here and now with her straightforward approach to life, albeit one where there is no limit to one’s spending habits. And it is Margaret’s long deceased Great-Aunt Edith who provides the magical realism for this family saga. As someone who is not a huge fan of fantasy or sci-fi, the magical realism here is much like Goldilocks’s quest for perfection. It is just the right amount to add a poignancy and eeriness to the plot.

I really loved how Terry introduces us to characters that are fully developed and fleshed out, flaws along with redeeming qualities. In the Elliott family, each character is dealing with something that draws them away from the family ties, yet in the end they are each drawn back to what makes them family, closer than ever.

Much later in the book we are introduced to a private investigator and the subject he is hired to locate. I won’t detail this so as not to spoil it for future readers. While not a book that falls into the mystery genre, it is the solving of this mystery that answers a lot of questions for Margaret and the rest of her family.

Pamela Terry first found fame via a blog named for her dog Edward which detailed her life, the books she was reading, her fine eye for the finer things in life, and her love of Scotland and nature. The blog was heavily dotted with pictures of Edward and his subsequent dog-siblings. The blog was archived in 2021 as Terry focused on the writing and publishing of her first novel.

Terry’s love of dogs is evident again in her third novel, where not only does her best friend have a chihuahua, but a Clumber Spaniel becomes part of her world part way through.

I, for one, am glad she chose being a novelist as her creative outlet. I had the pleasure of interviewing her after I read her first novel. The profile I wrote of her never found a home in publication, for which I am sad, as I felt I got to know her through our Zoom chat, and I think other readers of her work would love the opportunity to get to know her, too. Perhaps I will dust it off and update it and try again!

Her stories resonate with me and allow me to escape from the busy, noisy, concrete DC metropolitan area where I live to my childhood in southeast Louisiana, amongst the towering live oaks in my yard and all over my hometown, draped with Spanish moss swaying in the wind, the smell of citrus trees growing everywhere, neighbors stopping by unannounced, friends intermingling with immediate family, extended family, church family, and the simple pleasures of a creole tomato on a hot summer day. If you are in need of a trip down South, check out one of Pamela Terry’s novels—you won’t be disappointed.

ALL the stars, Pamela Terry. Please keep writing and I’ll keep reading!