I'd give it 3.5 stars. It was a very captivating read and a really good Southern Gothic type of story. I'm not sure how I liked the ending because there were so many good avenues the author could've gone with it, and it seemed too simple. It somewhat reminded me of Outerbanks with the mystery, violence and characters' backstories. It was a good, fictional short read minus the swearing from the older brother.

I was sucked in quickly and couldn’t stop reading… my only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars was there were so many many unanswered questions I had….. guess I just didn’t catch some of the hints that needed a bit more explanation to me at least. Was a great deal of the Ky lore in it that I grew up with in my Appalachian roots …

I got an advanced copy of this story to read. To me, there was a lot of movement in the book between present day, and flashbacks to teenage years (and even sometimes flashbacks within flashbacks). It was distracting to me until I got used to it. This story has a good mystery to it and some twists and turns that I didn't expect.

Southern fiction is my happy place. Another great read by Kim Michele Richardson. I listened to the audio book. The narration was excellent. The story had a dual timeline, and shifted seamlessly between "now" and "then". About halfway, maybe 2/3 through the book, it reached a point where I thought "Well, the story just resolved - but I still have 1/2 the book to go. What is KMR going to do now?" I kept going, and within five minutes I knew that she still had plenty of story to tell. It even surprised me a time or two. It wasn't all surprising. The big picture was pretty much what I'd expected, but there were smaller surprises along the way, scattered little kernels of surprise. KMR is one of those lyrical writers where you feel the story as you go. I could feel the gravel road under my feet as Flannery walked it. Book Woman of Troublesome Creek will always be my favorite, but this was a great read.

When Flannery and Patsy get into an argument on prom night and Flannery leaves for work she has no idea it will be the last time she sees her sister. Every year since her sister has gone missing their mother bakes a strawberry cake and leaves it out hoping this will be the year that Patsy comes back. Twenty years later a car is found in a river and this discovery leads to even more questions. Another tangential story, Flannery and Patsy’s father is a famous whisky maker in Kentucky and his status in the small town draws a unique group of admirers and haters alike. When he dies the world learns that the only person who knows his delectable recipes is Flannery. It’s beautifully written, smooth and easy to follow along. The perspective switches from the two sisters and spans multiple decades going from prom night to current day.

3.5 Stars. Decent read, although it almost too perfectly (eerily) captured the 1950s and how women were treated.

I am torn on the dual time/dual narrative structure - it helps with pacing in this book but I find it generally overused and possibly a reflection of an author who cannot weave together an effective narrative in chronological order. But that's just a personal bugaboo...

I think this book would have been better served by seeing the Hollis Henry / Flannery Butler truth reveal to its full completion. The shift from that dynamic via a ridiculous moment into the whole Joetta/dead twin brothers back story took all of the heat out of this for me. I didn't need this packaged into some tidy, palatable to society ending. Why not break the whole story open and bring out what should have been the consequences of the book's key event?

Up until the last Hollis/Flannery interaction, I was giving this a 3.5, maybe 4. Then it sank faster than the Mercury in the Kentucky.

Compelling story but the structure unraveled in the end. The first half alternated between the characters’ present day and their childhood. Then the last few chapters jumped decades and incompletely lost interest.

Good Southern family history novel.

As much as I thought the writing was very good, I didn't enjoy this book as I had other of Richardson's writings. It just seemed to be all over the place not just jumping from time period to time period, but in the plot itself.