History of Wolves
Emily Fridlund, 2017
Atlantic/Grove
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802125873
Summary
Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in the beautiful, austere woods of northern Minnesota, where their nearly abandoned commune stands as a last vestige of a lost counter-culture world.
Isolated at home and an outlander at school, Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong.
And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand.
Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life. As she struggles to find a way out of the sequestered world into which she was born, Linda confronts the life-and-death consequences of the things people do—and fail to do—for the people they love.
Winner of the McGinnis-Ritchie award for its first chapter, Emily Fridlund’s propulsive and gorgeously written History of Wolves introduces a new writer of enormous range and talent. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Washington University; Ph.D., University of Southern California
• Awards—Mary McCarthy Prize; McGinnis-Ritchie Award
• Currently—lives in Ithaca, New York
Emily Fridlund grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missour, and holds a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.
Fridlund's fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, Five Chapters, New Orleans Review, New Delta Review, Chariton Review, Portland Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly.
Her collection of stories, Catapult, was a finalist for the Noemi Book Award for Fiction and the Tartts First Fiction Award. It won the Mary McCarthy Prize and was published in 2017. The opening chapter of History of Wolves was published in Southwest Review and won the 2013 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction.
Fridland teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, part of the Finger Lakes region of New York State. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Few images in contemporary fiction have struck me as forcefully as that of Patra bent over in the driveway in anguish.... Fridlund has a tendency to...use two adjectives where one would do. But she is masterly when she lets more scraped-down prose push a series of elemental questions to the fore: Do intentions matter? What price will you pay to feel wanted?... The result is a novel of ideas that reads like smart pulp, a page-turner of craft and calibration.
Megan Hustad - New York Times Book Review
(Starred review.) [A] stellar debut.... [Fridlund's] wordsmithing is fantastic, rife with vivid turns of phrase. Fridlund has elegantly crafted a striking protagonist whose dark leanings cap off the tragedy at the heart of this book, which is moving and disturbing, and which will stay with the reader.
Publishers Weekly
Fridlund is a fine writer who excels at getting inside the head of an unhappy youth and revealing how neglect and isolation scar a child for life. Yet this first novel, as cold and bleak as a Minnesota winter, may be too dark for some readers. —Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
Library Journal
The writing is beautiful....a triumph of tone and attitude. Lovers of character-driven literary fiction will embrace this.
Booklist
(Starred review.) An atmospheric, near-gothic coming-of-age novel turns on the dance between predator and prey.... Fridlund is an assured writer.... The novel has a tinge of fairy tale, wavering on the blur between good and evil, thought and action. But the sharp consequences for its characters make it singe and sing—a literary tour de force.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for History of Wolves...then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe young Linda, not as a narrator of 37 but as she was in her teenage years? Do you consider her a sociopath, a narcissist, or simply a self-protective teenager?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: Is there a difference between Linda's adult voice as narrator and her younger self? Has she acquired wisdom since that fateful time in the woods?
3. What creates the bond between Linda and Patra and Paul—what draws them to one another?
4. Talk about Linda's parents and the way in which the author sets the two families up in contrast to one another.
5. Follow-up to Questions 3 and 4: One of the themes within History of Wolves is what constitutes family: is it flesh and blood...or is it something else? Talk about the nature of being a family.
6. How do the household dynamics change when Leo returns home to Patra and Paul?
7. Do a bit of research into Christian Science—consider its history and some of its tenets.
8. What do you think about the tragedy at the heart of this novel? To what extent does a family have the right to follow its own deeply-held religious beliefs?
9. In what way could you say that Linda's comment—"It's not what you think but what you do"—represents one of the moral lessons of the novel?
10. Mr. Grierson appears in the opening of the book, then disappears from the action, only to reappear again. His story can be seen as a parallel to Patra's, yet they are treated differently under the law. Are their respective treatments just?
11. In what way does the novel's setting, the frigid winter conditions of northern Minnesota, contribute to the story. Consider, for instance, that the weather deprives humans of warmth or comfort. Does the cold, perhaps, mirror human contact?
12. Consider the title, "History of Wolves." What is it's significance to the book's thematic concerns?
13. Do the shifting time frames make this book confusing...or do they add to its propulsive nature?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
It Ends With Us
Colleen Hoover, 2016
Atria Books
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501110368
Summary
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business.
So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt.
Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his "no dating" rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. Combining a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters, It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 11, 1979
• Where—Sulphur Springs, Texas, USA
• Raised—Saltillo, Texas
• Education—B.A., Texas A&M-Commerce
• Currently—lives in Sulphur Springs, Texas
Born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, Colleen Hoover grew up in Saltillo, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M-Commerce with a degree in Social Work. After college, she took a number of social work and teaching jobs before becoming a bestselling novelist.
Hoover began writing her first novel, Slammed, in 2011 with no intentions of getting published. Inspired by a lyric—"decide what to be and go be it"—from an Avett Brothers song, "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" and ended up incorporating Avett Brothers lyrics throughout the story.
After a few months, her novel was reviewed and given 5 stars by book blogger, Maryse Black. From that point on, sales increased rapidly: both Slammed and its sequel, Point of Retreat, ended up making the New York Times Best Seller list.
Since then Colleen has written and published over a dozen books.
In addition to her writing, Colleen is the founder of The Bookworm Box, a book subscription service which donates 100% of its profit to charity. She also owns a specialty bookstore of the same name, Bookworm Box, located in Sulphur Springs, Texas.
The author married Heath Hoover in 2000. The two have three sons and a pig named Sailor. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/3/2017.)
Book Reviews
What a glorious and touching read, a forever keeper. The kind of book that gets handed down.
USA Today
[T]tackles tough subject matter with a deft and confident hand.
Huffington Post
(Starred review.) Fans of Hoover's emotional stories, conflicted characters and intense romances will gleefully devour her new novel.... It Ends with Us is a perfect example of the author's writing chops and her ability to weave together uplifting, romantic and somber plotlines. No matter your level of fandom, readers will love and respect protagonist Lily and learn something from her struggles.
Romance Times Book Reviews
Best-selling Hoover’s latest valiant and compelling...novel packs her trademark emotional punch... The power and pain of the relationship will stay with readers even as Hoover offers hope.
Booklist
(Starred review.) The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author's note at the end that explains Hoover's personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read. Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for It Ends With Us...then take off on your own:
1. Lily Bloom gave an uncomplimentary eulogy for her abusive father. Was Lily right to give the kind of eulogy she did? What might you have done—what kind of eulogy might you have given had you been in Lily's shoes? Or...perhaps you have been in her shoes.
2. Why is Lily hesitant at first to become involved with Ryle? Is it his name: is it just too damn perfect to be true? Or is there something else that makes her hold back initially?
3. Talk about Atlas and Lily's young relationship. What drew them together? What happens when they reconnect in Boston?
4. Why does Lily agree to marry Ryle after having rediscovered Atlas...and especially after witnessing Ryle's displays of anger? Is her decision understandable? What would you have advised had she asked you?
5. No Spoiler here: In the end, does Lily make the right decision? What did you want to have happened? What would you have done? Or, again, if you have been in Lily's shoes (or know someone has), what choices did you make?
6. How did learning about Hoover's own familly history affect your reading of her novel?
7. What message have you taken away form this book? Does Hoover overly humanize Ryle, make him too attractive? Or does she give him voice and depth so that we come to understand him?
8. What does the title mean?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Ten Country Stories on Farms, Lakes, Ranches & Mountains
Katie Marie Bille, 2016
Orange Tree Publications
75 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781537254197
Summary
Ten Country Stories on Farms, Lakes, Ranches & Mountains is a mix of fiction and non fiction.
It has enjoyable short stories that take place all across the beautiful United States.
Some stories even have facts about apples, onions, delicious recipes, making smoothies, mountain music camps, horses, real places to visit and experience, making a violin, Nashville, New England in all of its four seasons. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 21, 1954
• Where—Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
• Education—B.S. (2); M.S., University of Wisconsin
• Currently—lives in Bradenton, Florida
Katie Marie Bille was born and lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin during her early years. She has two BS degrees and a Masters Degree from UW-Oshkosh, UW-Whitewater and some courses at UW-Madison Extension. She has been a Speech Language Therapist for over 35 years, and lives in Bradenton, Florida now. You can reach Katie Marie Bille by email: katiemariebille at gmail.com. (From the author.)
Discussion Questions
1. What are the titles to the ten country short stories?
2. Where do the stories take place?
3.What are some of the apple and onion recipes in the book?
4. Have any of you ever been to some of the real places listed in the country short stories?
5. Which country story did you like best and why?
6. Which characters seemed like someone you know?
7. Would anyone want to start a dude ranch for guests?
8. How do you make a smoothie?
9. Has anyone in the group ever ridden a horse?
10. What do you think of the cover design?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Whistler
John Grisham, 2016
Knopf Doubleday
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385541190
Summary
A high-stakes thrill ride through the darkest corners of the Sunshine State.
We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity is the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the flow of justice.
But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe?
Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. It is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption.
But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined.
And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout United States history. And now he wants to put a stop to it.
His only client is a person who knows the truth and wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. When the case is assigned to Lacy, she immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous.
Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 8, 1955
• Where—Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
• Education—B.S., Mississippi State; J.D., University of Mississippi
• Currently—lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Albermarle, Virginia
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer, politician, and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. He has written more than 25 novels, a short story collection (Ford County), two works of nonfiction, and a children's series.
Grisham's first bestseller was The Firm. Released in 1991, it sold more than seven million copies. The book was later adapted into a feature film, of the same name starring Tom Cruise in 1993, and a TV series in 2012 which "continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere and his family 10 years after the events of the film and novel." Eight of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, and his first novel, A Time to Kill. His books have been translated into 29 languages and published worldwide.
As of 2008, his books had sold over 250 million copies worldwide. Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing; the others are Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling.
Early life and education
Grisham, the second oldest of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and John Grisham. His father was a construction worker and cotton farmer; his mother a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family started traveling around the South, until they finally settled in Southaven in DeSoto County, Mississippi. As a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. neither of his parents had advanced education, he was encouraged to read and prepare for college.
As a teenager, Grisham worked for a nursery watering bushes for $1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor. Through a contact of his father, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at the age of 17.
It was during this time that an unfortunate incident made him think more seriously about college. A fight broke out among the crew with gunfire, and Grisham ran to the restroom for safety. He did not come out until after the police had "hauled away rednecks." He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college.
His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating." He decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys and then to appliances. A confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college.
He went to the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi and later attended Delta State University in Cleveland. Grisham drifted so much during his time at the college that he changed colleges three times before completing a degree. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a BS degree in accounting.
He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law planning to become a tax lawyer. But he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1983 with a JD degree.
Law and politics
Grisham practiced law for about a decade and also won election as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990 at an annual salary of $8,000. By his second term at the Mississippi state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees.
With the success of his second book The Firm, published in 1991, Grisham gave up practicing law. He returned briefly in 1996 to fight for the family of a railroad worker who had been killed on the job. It was a commitment made to the family before leaving law to become a full-time writer. Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500—the biggest verdict of his career.
Writing
Grisham said that, sometime in the mid-1980s, he had been hanging around the court one day when he overheard a 12-year-old girl telling the jury how she been beaten and raped. Her story intrigued Grisham, so he began to watch the trial, noting how members of the jury wept during her testimony. It was then, Grisham later wrote in the New York Times, that a story was born. Musing over "what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants," Grisham took three years to complete his first book, A Time to Kill.
Finding a publisher was not easy. The book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000-copy printing. It was published in June 1989. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on his second novel, the story of an ambitious young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared." The Firm remained on the the New York Times' bestseller list for 47 weeks and became the bestselling novel of 1991.
Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, the author broadened his focus from law to the more general rural South, but continued to write legal thrillers. He has also written sports fiction and comedy fiction.
In 2005, Grisham received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.
In 2010, Grisham started writing legal thrillers for children 9-12 years old. The books featured Theodore Boone, a 13-year-old boy, who gives his classmates legal advice—everything from rescuing impounded dogs to helping their parents prevent their house from being repossessed. His daughter, Shea, inspired him to write the Boone series.
Marriage and family
Grisham married Renee Jones in 1981, and the couple have two grown children together, Shea and Ty. The family spends their time in their Victorian home on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi, and their other home near Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Innocence Project
Grisham is a member of the Board of Directors of The Innocence Project, which campaigns to free unjustly convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence. The Innocence Project argues that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Grisham has testified before Congress on behalf of the Project and appeared on Dateline on NBC, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, and other programs. He also wrote for the New York Times in 2013 about an unjustly held prisoner at Guantanamo.
Libel suit
In 2007, former legal officials from Oklahoma filed a civil suit for libel against Grisham and two other authors. They claimed that Grisham and the others critical of Peterson and his prosecution of murder cases conspired to commit libel and generate publicity for themselves by portraying the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. Grisham was named due to his publication of the non-fiction book, The Innocent Man. He examined the faults in the investigation and trial of defendants in the murder of a cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma, and the exoneration by DNA evidence more than 12 years later of wrongfully convicted defendants Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz. The judge dismissed the libel case after a year, saying, "The wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz must be discussed openly and with great vigor."
Misc.
The Mississippi State University Libraries maintains the John Grisham Room, an archive containing materials related to his writings and to his tenure as Mississippi State Representative.
Grisham has a lifelong passion for baseball demonstrated partly by his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi, and Charlottesville, Virginia. He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the 2004 baseball movie Mickey, starring Harry Connick, Jr. He remains a fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball.
In an October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book and that his favorite author is John le Carre. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/6/2013.)
Book Reviews
[A] main character [who’s] a seriously appealing woman...a whistle-blower who secretly calls attention to corruption . . . a strong and frightening sense of place.... [John Grisham’s] on his game.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
Riveting…finely drawn.... Grisham fans looking for courtroom drama might be disappointed by The Whistler, since [Judge] McDover’s questionable cases are glossed over. The book feels more like the first half of an episode of Law & Order, with much of the story focused on Stoltz and her crime-fighting squad.
Peter Lattman - New York Times Book Review
A fascinating look at judicial corruption…an entirely convincing story and one of Grisham’s best. I can’t think of another major American novelist since Sinclair Lewis who has so effectively targeted social and political ills in our society. In Grisham’s case, it is time at least to recognize that at his best he is not simply the author of entertaining legal thrillers but an important novelistic critic of our society. In more than 30 novels, he has often used his exceptional storytelling skills to take a hard look at injustice and corruption in the legal world and in our society as a whole.
Patrick Anderson - Washington Post
[John Grisham is] our guide to the byways and backwaters of our legal system, superb in particular at ferreting out its vulnerabilities and dramatizing their abuse in gripping style.
USA Today
Grisham's latest involves the rich and powerful and an abuse of the justice system. Grisham novels are crowd-pleasers because he knows how to satisfy readers who want to see injustice crushed, and justice truly prevails for those who cannot buy influence.
Associated Press
[A] tense legal thriller.... A high-stakes game of gambling, greed, and murder plays out in another page-turner from a master storyteller.
Pubishers Weekly
[A]nother blockbuster in the making from Grisham, the ascended master of the legal procedural.Yes, it’s formula.... Yes, it’s not as gritty an exercise in swamp mayhem as Hiaasen, Buchanan, or Crews might turn in. But, like eating a junk burger, even though you probably shouldn’t, it’s plenty satisfying.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Whistler...then take off on your own:
1. Talk about Lacy Stoltz. Grisham has been accused of ignoring strong females for his lead characters. Does Stoltz satisfy that lack? What do you think of her?
2. Do you find anything enviable about Lacy's life in the following passage? If so what? If you're a woman, do you ever envision a life like Stoltz's?
The truth was that, at the age of 36, Lacy was content to live alone, to sleep in the center of the bed, to clean up only after herself, to make and spend her own money, to come and go as she pleased, to pursue her career without worrying about his, to plan her evenings with input from no one else, to cook or not to cook, and to have sole possession of the remote control.m. Describe Judge Claudia McDover.
3. Grisham's writing contains some sharp observations about lawyers. Pick out a few passages, like the lawyer he describes here as a "ham-and-egg street hustler." Are Grisham's observations about the legal profession in general fair? What things does he reveal about the law that perhaps we'd rather not know?
4. Talk about the Coast Mafia and the crimes they commit. What about Vonn Dubose?
5. Had you figured out the whistle blower's motive before the reveal?
6. How does Grisham ratchet up the suspense in The Whistler? What about that mysterious late night meeting near the Tappacola reservation? Realistically, why would Lacy and Hugo have gone?
7. Can you describe the elaborate crime scheme? Did you understand it...or is it too complicated to grasp?
8. Read other Grisham novels? If so, how does this one compare?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Fate of the Tearling (Tearling Triogy, 3)
Erika Johansen, 2016
HarperCollins
496 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062290427
Summary
The thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Tearling trilogy.
In less than a year, Kelsea Glynn has transformed from a gawky teenager into a powerful monarch. As she has come into her own as the Queen of the Tearling, the headstrong, visionary leader has also transformed her realm.
In her quest to end corruption and restore justice, she has made many enemies—including the evil Red Queen, her fiercest rival, who has set her armies against the Tear.
To protect her people from a devastating invasion, Kelsea did the unthinkable—she gave herself and her magical sapphires to her enemy—and named the Mace, the trusted head of her personal guards, regent in her place. But the Mace will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign, imprisoned in Mortmesne.
Now, as the suspenseful endgame begins, the fate of Queen Kelsea—and the Tearling itself—will finally be revealed. (From the publisher.)
The Queen of the Tearling (2014) is the first book in the series. The Invasion of the Tearling (2015) is the second, and this is the third.
Author Bio
Erika Johansen grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. She went to Swarthmore College, earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and eventually became an attorney, but she never stopped writing. (From the publishers.)
Read Erika's Buzzfeed article: Why We Need "Ugly" Heroines
Book Reviews
Kelsea flourishes alongside the other female characters at the center of the novel: These are powerful, determined women who work hard to accomplish their goals even as their mistakes haunt them. Johansen doesn’t punish them for these mistakes; she allows them to grow, leading to a well-earned ending.
Washington Post
The final Queen of the Tearling installment continues to follows the fate of Queen Kelsea and the Tearling in a heart-pounding, epic conclusion of this series. It’s one that’s been eagerly anticipated, so if you haven’t read the prior two books, you’ll definitely want to get on top of that.
Buzzfeed
[T]he conflict is fleshed out through myriad character arcs, some more compelling than others. However, the bittersweet resolution, which wraps up the story quite nicely, undermines much of what transpires here....a solid, if not entirely satisfying, end to the series.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Johansen has consistently taken huge narrative risks with this series, which started as a traditional fantasy and then began incorporating glimpses of a dystopian alternate world. Verdict: [T]he finale of this outstanding series will be talked about by readers.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) This is a thrilling conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.... Johansen’s fans will be pleased.
Booklist
[T]he end gets all liony, witchy, and wardroby...requiring more than a little disbelief-suspension. Still, the writing is smart and...a touch above a lot of sword-and-sorcery stuff—but still very much bound up in the conventions of that genre. Overall, a satisfying close to a long but worthy yarn.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)