Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it is not for me. I’ve tried to get into it a few times but have not made it past 29%.

Great short story about the poetically termed "vague pains" of life of three main characters, two doctors and one patient, whose paths cross temporarily at a time of change for each of them. Their thoughts about their lives, it's vague pains, which are really not so much vague, but common to the human condition, and what gives life meaning are beautifully written and challenge common wisdom and philosophy.

This was an interesting book, which delved into the lives of three strangers. Due to the book being shorter, the characters were still somewhat elusive and unlike many books, where you get to know them and understand their motivations, this book kind of kept you guessing. I wish this book was longer, but it was decent for what it briefly consisted of. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read the book.

Thought provoking book. Great interaction between the main three characters at some point in the book. Some may see themselves or others that they know. Kept your interest. I would like to know more about the characters so if there was another book written, I for one would read it as soon as it became available to me. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Henry Beale is a hospital regular. From the vantage point of his bed he ruminates on his favourite books, the people around him and the lingering memories of the days and months leading up to the death of hi father. Tess Sloan is a doctor struggling to carve her way through a profession that can be unforgiving on women all the while wrestling with the spectre of her accomplished doctor mother. Thomas Klein is the doctor who dealt with Henry's dad, looking to find his own way toward something that moves him. Three people who intertwine in the happenstance way that life sometimes takes us...brought together in the everyday life of Meadowview hospital in ways that are both benign and profound. There are gems in this little novel, mostly in the way the characters mediate on the peculiarities of life. Yet, I wanted more. I wanted more interaction between these random strangers, especially Henry and Tess. Why did he want to meet her again? What did it mean for her? Why did Thomas leave? It felt like surfaces got scratched and, beyond that, there is so much more that could be explored.

I was really interested in both of these rather philosophical main characters: Henry Beale, a young man who's pretty much grown up in and out of hospitals, and Dr. Tess Sloan. It's intriguing the way each of them deals cerebrally with their own parental turmoil - Henry with the memory of his passive father, and Tess struggling in the shadow of her influential mother. Having grown up in a suburb of Detroit very similar to the setting here, I felt Lemon did a great job setting the scenes and creating these characters, and I was eager to see how Henry and Tess would interact... and then, quite suddenly I felt, came the Epilogue.