I liked this book a lot more than I thought I was going to. The summary didn't really say much, but as a married mom, I thought it would be interesting. I was right. Tom and Helen have twin three year old girls who are quite a handful and along with that, they both work many hours at pretty stressful jobs. Clearly it is taking a told on both of them because they are both stressed and exhausted and definitely disconnected from each other. The story takes place over one 24 hour period and initially I was wondering what the 200+ pages could possibly be about. Tom has some secrets that come out as he goes through his day which are actually pretty surprising and really kept me interested and wanting to read more. Helen too, but more engrossing details about her day are the encounters she has throughout while at home/around the neighborhood. I was actually surprised at all the things that popped up in both of their days and also at the strength of both of their characters. I really liked the ending too even though it didn't really tie up any loose ends, it was very appropriate for the story and the main characters. Liked the writing and all the other characters too.

Just was not for me. The plot, the characters, the style, nothing about the story made me care about what was happening. In fact, the longer I read, the more I disliked it. I could not stand the characters, particularly Tom. I have no understanding of why people continued to help him throughout the book when he seemed to give nothing in return. If I had not agreed to write a review, I would have stopped early into it and not posted about it. However, I do seem to be the outlier here though so it could just be me.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Grand Central Publishing, and the author Jennifer Kitses for the opportunity to do so.

Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses (debut)
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Length: 288 pages

Single Sentence Summary: Tom and Helen wake to a normal day only to have the secrets they hold threaten to destroy their delicately balanced marriage.

Primary Characters: Tom – husband, and father of three 3-three year old girls. Tom feels lots of pressure at home and at work, tends to have lapses in attention. Helen – wife, mother to 3-year old twins, Sophie and Ilona. Helen works from home as a graphic designer and has serious anger issues.

From the Publisher: “... a gripping, suspenseful, and gorgeous debut novel–told hour-by-hour over the course of a single day–in which a husband and wife try to outrun long-buried secrets, sending their lives spiraling into chaos.”

Review: Unfolding in alternating perspectives, Small Hours, showcases a marriage on the brink of disaster. Tom and Helen wake up under the assumption that their lives are under control, that their marriage is strong. But, as the day progresses, those fallacies slowly begins to crumble. Why? Secrets.

Small Hours is a story of secrets. Secrets a husband has long hidden from his wife. Secrets she is ashamed to share with him. It’s the story of secrets that can no longer be silenced. Secrets that have the power to destroy a good marriage, a marriage neither husband or wife realized was on the precipice of disaster.

“She’d never said anything to Tom about that moment of anger. Or about any of the ones that followed. They became part of an ever-widening category of what she kept to herself.”

“There was only one thing he understood with certainty: This life, as he knew it, was coming to an end. These stolen hours that he’d spent checked out from the never-ending pressures of his all-too-real life.”

This couple has lived for a long time pretending their world was right, but as the day unfolds their secrets rear up and can no longer be ignored. Jennifer Kitses has done a wonderful job presenting an ordinary couple battling their way through complicated circumstances that they’re largely responsible for creating. For both Tom and Helen she’s developed backstories that lead to a realistic domino effect for their individual crises. I very much liked that Kitses had elements of Tom’s story leading to element’s of Helen’s and vice versa. The questions quickly became, “What kind of secrets can this marriage survive?” and “Who will be responsible for toppling their union?”

At times the choices Tom and Helen made seemed a little “out there,” but not enough so that they were difficult to overlook. And, I found the ending very satisfying. Small Hours is a fun, fast paced book that would be perfect to tuck in your bag for a vacation read this summer. Grade: B

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

Just how many bad decisions can an individual make in a single day? Let’s ask Tom and Helen, the married couple at the heart of Small Hours, whose relationship is already founded on a number of poor choices and secrets. Tom still hasn’t managed to find the right moment to share with Helen the fact that he has a love child with an ex-mistress. And Helen hasn’t totally forgiven herself for arm-twisting Tom into having two daughters when he didn’t want children, as well as pushing him to move out of New York City, to a small town in the Hudson Valley with a commute time of 90 minutes.

Kitses’ schema is to cram this family’s dilemmas and possible resolutions into a twenty-four-hour time frame. So, chapters – labelled with the time, like a ticking clock – both exist here in the now, with a whole slew of incoming events, while simultaneously ballooning to include past passions, regrets and failures. Not just questions of loyalty and fidelity, but money, employment, aggression, sex, food, even life and death roll through this eventful day and night. Tom nearly loses his job and his secret daughter, while Helen gets into potentially violent stand-offs and earns the disapproval of her neighbors.

As straitjackets go, Kitses’ choice of form is quite a tough one and yet she manages to make it work, balancing past and present while moving events forward and maintaining suspense through a succession of twists. Inevitably there are moments of fatigue when the reader seeks gratification rather than ceaseless procrastination, but these become subsumed in the overall readability of the prose. And the book is short.

Kitses is a deft writer, capable of contrasting the mixed social fortunes of a small decaying town with the thrumming pressures of a metropolitan workplace, and the complicated fortunes of individual souls – workers, partners, offspring. As debuts go – and additions to the expanding niche of parenting novels set on the Hudson Metro North Line – this one is better than merely readable. Perhaps in her second book the author will relax the formal boundaries and allow herself to expand a little further.

Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses is a recommended domestic drama.

Helen Nichols and Tom Foster are in their forties and the parents of three-year-old twin daughters. They are regretting some of the decisions they have made, including buying their house in Devon, located in upstate New York. Unfortunately they are now upside-down in their mortgage and can't afford to leave. Tom has a long commute into Queens, while Helen tries to work from home. Neither are happy with the current arrangement. Both are exhausted. Both are stressed out from their jobs. Helen is a seething ball of rage and anger just under the surface. Tom is trying to be a father to the twins as well as another daughter born at the same time, a result of an affair.

Kitses debut novel focuses on an eventful, stressful twenty-four hour period with chapters alternating between the actions of Helen and Tom. Think 24, only focused on a perpetually exhausted, uncommunicative couple who both have work problems, are under paid, underappreciated, make increasingly poor choices, and in a crumbling marriage. But in this scenario there are no cool action scenes and no one is going to save the world, it is just a ticking clock, ever growing weariness, and one mishap and misstep after another.

What saved Small Hours from the quagmire of being simply yet another novel about a marriage falling apart is the excellent writing. While I didn't like either character (And what is this with an increasing number of books where I can not find a sympathetic character because they both have w-a-y too many issues and are in denial?) the quality of the writing does pull the novel out of muck to an at least acceptable level. (It is not to the level of quality of Richard Russo, as per the description.)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/06/small-hours.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2026993673

Look on the surface and you see a typical suburban family. Tom and Helen have moved 90 minutes out of New York city where Tom works to afford a home for their now family of four. The twins, Sophia and Ilona are three years old and attend a morning daycare so their mom can get a bit of time to work out and meet her deadlines as a freelance graphic designer. Sounds like this is going to be another dull day in suburbia. Anything but.

Scratch the surface and you find Tom is not sleeping well. Pressures at work, the daily commute and secrets he's keeping from his wife are eating away at him. Helen is stressed to the max. She appears to have anger issues, is struggling to juggle motherhood and a demanding career filled with deadlines. She is maxing out credit cards to maintain their suburban dream. Trouble is, the town she insisted they move to is not the Shangri-La she had hoped it would be. And Tom seems to be preoccupied with worries of his own.

Failure to communicate is only the beginning. We spend twenty-four hours with this couple and witness a family crisis which has taken months (years) to create. Exhaustion on the part of the couple leads to some terrible decisions. So terrible the reader can hardly watch, and hardly look away. It’s a train wreck, no question.

I can’t say I liked either of our mains in this one. They truly are their own worst enemies. I almost packed it in at 80% as I could not see anyone coming to their senses any time soon. The final and abrupt ending was a surprise but satisfying.

Impressive debut. A well written book which holds you captive so you can’t look away.

3.5 stars

The entire book covers 24 hours in the marriage of Tom and Helen. They are the parents of three-year-old twins and have recently moved from Queens to a small town on the Hudson River. Helen is working from home and is finding it stressful finding enough time to manage work, home and children. Tom commutes to his job at a news wire service. They have come into some financial difficulties and have been less than honest and upfront with each other so things start to unravel.

This is one of those books where everyday events can lead to a powerful punch. The author expertly rackets up the suspense as Tom and Helen’s day proceeds. I’ve been trying not to rely too much on advertising blurbs and comparisons but I think the publisher’s comparisons to Richard Russo and Tom Perrotta are very close. I cared about Tom and Helen and I kept wishing they would just sit down and talk things out instead of trying to handle their difficulties on their own. It was obvious they cared about each other. The suspense comes into play because you’re just not sure how far the author is going to take the story and you can only sit and watch in dread as the hours go by. I found Tom and Helen’s story to be realistic and believable and I very much enjoyed the time spent with them.

I did find the section involving Tom’s work place to be a bit slow and that was my least favorite part of the book, though at times it was humorous. Maybe that’s because I’m retired and really don’t want to spend any time at “work”, even in a book. I could certainly feel Tom’s frustration there.

This is the author’s debut novel and I’m very interested to see where she heads next.

Recommended.

I recently read that all marriages have secrets and what to make of how those secrets affect a marriage. There are secrets and then there are secrets. This debut novel, <i>Small Hours</i>, unfolds in the course of one long day. The couple, Tom and Helen, changed their lives drastically when they had twins three years ago. They left New York City and moved to an 'exburb' ninety minutes away to a home where they could raise their girls. Tom commutes to his job as a news wire editor daily and Helen works as a graphic designer from home.

Anyone who has been a parent, never mind the parent of twins, can easily recognize the stress of trying to stay afloat with toddlers. Looking at their lives as an outsider, we can say they clearly have made mistakes. We have all made mistakes when we were young and new parents with ideas of what we wanted for those precious creatures who landed in our lives. Add in a secret and you have a life changing disaster if it isn't handled with honesty and a clear head. How can you have a clear head if you are not sleeping enough and trying to stay afloat professionally? This is a debut novel that covers all those stressors and the balancing act that can keep a family together or splinter it apart.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing (June 13th 2017).

I would like to thank Jennifer Kitses, Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for giving me this book for my honest review.
Review By Stephanie
Jennifer Kitses did a great job with her debut book. I really enjoyed the storyline. Helen and Tom fled New York in the hopes of a fresh new start. The small town vibe is just they are looking for to raise their twin daughters. Everything was all good in the hood until it wasn’t…..one morning in September Helen starts to unravel, and she foolishly gets involved with two teenagers. Helen isn’t the only one facing a crisis…..Tom is trying so hard to hide his secrets…
Small Hours was a book full of suspense and WOW!! One little mistake can alter one’s life forever is echoed throughout this book immensely! I look forward to read more from Jennifer!

I was really intrigued by the description of this book, and couldn't wait to read it. Once I got started though, I felt like I couldn't wait for it to end. While well written, the story itself was boring.

Tom and Ellen, along with their three year-old twin girls, relocated from the busy city of New York to the quiet suburbs of Devon, thinking that the move will solve all the their problems. But, on a especially dreadful day, Tom and Ellen's lives spiral out-of-control. Illusions will be shattered, trust will be broken and secrets will be revealed.

3.5 Stars

Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses was a spontaneous selection. I was browsing through available titles and I landed on Kitses' novel. I'd never read anything by this author before, so I knew I'd be going into it completely blind. And, it turns out that Small Hours is Kitses' debut novel.

Kitses' book read fairly quickly; I finished it in less than two days and devoted very little time to it. The events of Small Hours are spread through a day, with about a chapter per hour. The narration switches between Ellen and Tom. Kitses also alternates between the past and the present as the story of Tom and Ellen unfolds. Overall, I thought that the structure of the book was great. There is a few bumps and confusing parts, but nothing too troubling. The first third of Small Hours is difficult to get through because of the slow pace and monotone day-to-day business, but ultimately I was glad I pushed through. The pace increases significantly and remains steady until the end.

The main characters/narrators of Small Hours are Tom and Ellen, a married couple in their early forties and parents of twin toddlers. While a lot of external factors affect the couple and their relationship, it is the internal elements who cut them the deepest. Neither of the characters are remotely likable, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. They both felt like struggling, confused, individuals. There was definitely a sense of familiarity to them. I feel like everyone met, at least once, some version of Tom and Ellen. Unhappy persons who are reluctant to make any change to improve their lives in the long run.

That being said, I feel like there was a definite lack of chemistry between Tom and Ellen. Resolving their issues and staying together is definitely an option, but rooting for them to do so is troubling because the love and affection for one another isn't there. You can't feel it, and that's problematic.

The ending was also a hit-and-miss for me. Or, I should say the lack thereof. There is a moment which is very climatic and exciting towards the end of Small Hours. However, the reader is left wanting more and disappointed. There was something incredibly unsatisfying about Kitses' rushed conclusion.

Overall, Small Hours is a well-written debut novel with an interesting premise and a gorgeous cover. Definitely an author to watch. I'd be willing to pick up another book by Kitses because I enjoyed her writing and the brutal, yet honest fizzling of a middle-class couple

I read 1/3 of the book and it just didn't grab me enough to continue reading. I felt no compassion or interest in the characters

I chose to read and review this book since it is being pegged as writing in a Richard Russo and Tom Perrotta style. I beg to differ. These are two of my favorite authors and I just did not see it. The only similarities I could find are that “Small Hours” written by Jenifer Kitses, evokes a sense of place, and money, or lack of it, in the blue collar world of upstate New York.

The protagonists are in their early forties with twin three-year old daughters. Like many city couples they buy a home in the suburbs that they really cannot afford. Unfortunately for them, they bought the house at the height of the market. When they realize that their new neighborhood has a seedy side, obvious little research went into the buying, it is now too late to sell for it would be at a loss. So the wife, who works from home, is surrounded by those she would rather not interact with.

The story is told in a span of one day, hour by hour, minute by minute. If you think you ever had a bad 24 hours read this story and it will no longer seem so bad. The narration alternates between the husband’s and the wife’s point of view. Neither knows that the other is on the verge of getting fired. They both have not been severely distracted and not at their best work wise (actually anywise). The tale almost reads like a suspense story with the tick, tick, ticking of how many more work related, phone calls, emails, and deadlines they are each avoiding. Both are stalling with their answers to their perspective employers. But, Kitses plays this sort of suspense hand one too many times to the reader. Three quarters through, I was hoping that the damn clock would just break already and get it over with. Both are also hiding a secret from the other (other than their soon-to-be unemployed status). I think the author was going for more of a “Desperate Hours” theme rather than a “Small Hours” one, either way she lost me.

4★
Ooooo sometimes I just wanted to shake these people and say WAKE UP! A youngish couple with twin three-year old daughters are living in Devon -"ninety-five minutes to Grand Central. A former mill town, now an exurb, as their real estate agent put it. "

The action in the story takes place over the course of a single day, but the flashbacks and memories are what gradually let us see how they got into a situation between a rock and a hard place.

Tom and Helen. Both had good jobs in the city, Helen wanted a baby, Tom wanted Helen to be happy .

Tom edits science stories for the wire services and is hoping to hang onto his job as staff are being shed around him. He was good mates with his gorgeous boss, and she seemed keen to keep him around. Meanwhile, Helen is a graphic designer, but as her work was disappearing, her boss suggested she could freelance for him from home – the new home, that is.

So that’s where we find them, in the not-very-flash, paid-too-much-for-it house which is a long commute to the city for Tom. It’s also a can’t-afford-the-mortgage-now home, and the twins take up time, effort and whatever modicum of energy is left after all the other stress. Helen wanted a real house in a town to remind her of how she grew up. Tom starts missing his own youth.

Next door, Tom sees

“the old Chevy Nova that belonged to Nick’s girlfriend. There was a crumpled takout bag in the passenger seat and a pack of cigarettes on the dashboard.

Tom had once had a ’73 Nova. He’d loved that car.

Of course, that was a lifetime ago. He unlocked the secondhand Ford Taurus wagon he’d bought when they moved out here. The girls climbed into the back. As he buckled them into their car seats, he gave them his brightest, most enthusiastic smile.”

He’s struggling, slips, struggles some more. He gets himself so tangled up that it’s hard to see what might happen next.

“At times it seemed like he spent his days moving along a grid, trying to stay inside the lines as best as he could, determined not to mess up, not to let anyone down.”

Meanwhile, Helen is juggling work (pretty much 24/7 from home), bills, maxed-out credit cards, pre-school, household, and Tom keeps crazy hours. She looks next door, too, wanting to confide in the older musician next door who seems to understand her, and his son, whose girlfriend, the Nova driver, supplies Helen with a bit of babysitting and the occasional therapeutic smoke. She misses her youth, too.

Both Tom and Helen hanker for freedom (but adore their kids, of course). Helen runs to burn off her frustration, but it’s building up.

“Some days the smallest incidents would trigger a burning in her stomach. It was like she’d waited her whole life to get angry.”

She has an uncomfortable confrontation with a pair of teen-aged girls at the park with her kids, and it scares her. There are streets she won’t run on. She’s not feeling safe now in the house they can’t afford.

“Her body seemed to ache in recognition of what was becoming impossible to ignore. She was losing control. Making bad decisions. All that slow-burning anger she’d felt these last few years was finally coming to a boil.”

A good read. Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the review copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may change.

I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. One day in a married couple's life from the description appealed to me. However, I didn't even come close to what I was expecting. Although the book covers 24 hours in the life of Helen and Tom, the married couple, it goes back a few years describing what happened and what led them to this particular day. It alternates between Tom's and Helen's day and kind of ends abruptly. I don't have a problem with endings that makes you think, what would happen, in this book I didn't have faith in any of the protagonists that they will resolve their issues in a realistic way. Overall, a disappointing book, do not recommend.
Thanks NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and the author, Jennifer Kitses for the advanced copy.

Very difficult to relate to either main characters, Tom or Helen. Tom is very self absorbed and at the same time very shallow, Helen is extremely full of some previous rage but, since the story takes place in one day it is never explained why. Lots of open ended situations that are not ended or explained. Waste of time,

Having never read her work before, I was very impressed with this novel.

This book is fabulous. If you like page turners, this one is a good read. The couple, Helen and Tom are both caught up in individual wars as they try to hold together their lives, which are spiraling out of control as they struggle through their anxieties, secrets and frustrations. The characters are not really likeable, but yet you can definitely relate to how things have gotten so bad.

Caught up in the everyday holdrum of trying to hold down jobs while raising two toddler twins, they are caught up in money and work battles that just keep getting worse. It is definitely like a train wreck, but I really couldn't put the book down. Thank you NetGalley for this advance copy. This would be an EXCELLENT book for a book club...lots to discuss here.

I was given this book by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Beautifully written. Would recommend.

2.5

I honestly didnt care for this book. Am rounding down because I think I may have been too generous lately with some reviews.

This book never captured my attention. I never got a grasp of the characters. Though I didnt like Tom [he deserved no pity], I didnt care for Helen either [though she was somewhat deserving of sympathy--but ONLY A BIT]. They were both irritating. And liars. They lied to themselves, they lie to each other.,

Tom and Helen move from Long Island City to the Hudson Valley with their twin daughters to get a new start [and hopefully less expensive life]. The town, in fact everything, proves to be a dud. Many secrets and lies, nasty teenagers, debt, aging hippies and more. But not enough.

A debut novel that is told hour by hour over the course of a single day, and though a bit under 300 pages, IT DRAGGED. I just didnt care--about the people, the story, anything. I slogged through it.

Somewhat predictable [another detraction], there were few sparks of live in this novel. And the ending [!]--by that time, I truly no longer cared.