Dreams Of Falling by Karen White – 416 pages
ARC courtesy of Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
It’s been nine years since Larkin fled Georgetown, South Carolina, vowing never to go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she knows she has no choice but to return to the place that she both loves and dreads–and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home. Ivy, Larkin’s mother, is discovered in the burned-out wreckage of her family’s ancestral rice plantation, badly injured and unconscious. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly 50 years. Secrets that lead back to the past, to the friendship between three girls on the brink of womanhood who swore that they would be friends forever, but who found that vow tested in heartbreaking ways.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Dreams of Falling is a family drama and mystery combo by the queen of Southern fiction. I’ve read most of her books and am always brought into the South through her vivid and lush descriptions of people, time and place. I believe different readers will all have the same pictures in their heads of all the characters and scenery.
There were many characters in this book and because it involved three generations, I often had to stop to recall who was who. I felt that Larkin was the least developed, while the women in the older generation were flawed, interesting and multi-faceted characters. I wanted to relate to Larkin more, but I couldn’t. It was the layered secrets that completely drove the plot. Those secrets kept me engaged as I tried to unravel the lies and learn the truth.
Overall, it’s about new and old loves, intense friendships, mother/daughter relationships and knowing where your home is.
Quotes I liked:
We are made by those who have built and broken us.”
– “Maybe that’s what being a mother was—not so much the act of giving birth, but the sense of understanding and love born from the need to protect.”
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