I was never able to engage with "Daughters of Erietown" is a novel that seemed like a good bet considering the author and the setting. It's a multigenerational tale of dysfunction--every kind of it--set in a crumbling, economically battered town. Just too much. Hoping for hope, but very little available.

A great story. It chronicles an Ohio family in the second half of the 20th century. The story is woman centric, opening with the birth of Ellie’s second child. A event not shared with her husband. Each of the women here loosens a thread to their lives. It is a look at struggle and worth redefined , women coping and breaking and rising restored. It takes the time to look at questions that explore the why of a town, and reason they endured during this time in America. A beautiful read.

three generations in a small town. What's not to love?? Well developed characters that seemed to pop of the page. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

A really absorbing story of a family. I got completely caught up in the characters and liked each and every one of them, despite their flaws. For me, that's the true test of a book: when you like the characters enough to get really invested in their development.

Ellie and Brick are high school seniors, both products of working-class families, they both dream of lives beyond their small Ohio town. Ellie learns she is pregnant and gives up her dream of nursing school and Brick gives up his football scholarship to head to work full time to support his new family. The plot predictably covers a multitude of dysfunction: adultery, alcoholism, abuse, adultery, resentment and regret. I feel like I have read this story before, but the characters were well developed and the ending was satisfying.

Although there were aspects of this book that didn't work for me, overall it is an enjoyable read. A family saga which spans three generations of women who live in the same small town in rural Ohio. It is a story of what it is to be a woman, and how it feels to live in a small town. It is a book that is contemplative and complex, about family, feminism, race, and class. Shultz created characters that will inspire empathy and compassion, who are vivid and real. Even the characters who do terrible things to the people they love are memorable and will linger with you making you think about the emotions they felt and made you feel too. I don't want to say much about the plot as it would mean spoiling the story.

Loved Connie Schultz’s first novel! Her well-known voice as a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist is distinctly in play here, as a gifted storyteller with deep, genuinely Midwestern, blue-collar roots. Much of the book is inspired by her own life and by the lives of her parents, who appear here as the characters Brick and Ellie McGinty.

The women of Erietown are people you feel you may know in real life, and their joys, problems and heartbreaks feel real, too. This is a novel that book clubs will enjoy discussing!

The Daughters of Erietown feels like it is written about women that I already know. This is a beautifully written story involving love, loss, heartbreak, secrets, and sacrifice. Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and I hope this is the first of many novels to come.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

I was thrilled to receive an advance reader copy of Connie Schultz book. I'm a huge fan of the author and really wanted to love this, and I did.
A sweeping epic novel, covering four generations of two families in a working class town in Ohio.
This novel covers familiar themes, but does it in a way that left me at times breathless and at times melancholy, constantly reminding the reader that life is short, and the choices we make can change generations.


Definitely put this on your summer reading list.

This book brought me back to my childhood. I could identify with each character, situation and the small town. I grew up in this Ohio era and area and I want to commend Connie Schultz for her accurate portrayal of the times, hardships and love found in this moving story.

A coming of age story covering three generations of women in small town Ohio which is both believable and well-written.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

This is probably one of the strongest debut novels I have ever read. Extremely difficult to put down. Several generations of women in 2 families that intertwine around one big secret that could destroy one of the families. Are secrets better to hold secret even if it would do great harm to others? Sometimes you never have the chance to find out. This was a riveting read that immediately draws you in.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Schultz’s debut novel is completely absorbing from the opening pages through the finale. It follows a working-class family from the fictional Erietown in northeastern Ohio across the 20th century’s second half. While its situations are familiar –teenage pregnancy, generational conflict, infidelity, women’s stifled hopes – the author renders them unique through characters whose vivid inner lives make them feel as real as any of us. In 1975, Samantha McGinty heads to Kent State, the first in her family to attend university. In the car with her parents and brother, Sam thinks back on the terrible day in 1969 that broke her family and made her see her father, Brick, in a new, critical light.

Following this provocative hint of mystery, the narrative smoothly moves back in time to depict Sam’s parents as young people facing troubled circumstances. It’s 1956, and petite sixteen-year-old Ellie Fetters, raised by caring, old-fashioned grandparents, loves red-haired Brick McGinty, top scorer for their high school’s basketball team. Brick grows up protecting his exhausted mother from his father’s abuse and plans a future that involves Ellie, a sports scholarship, and escaping their small rural town. Ellie’s pregnancy derails their dreams, transforming Ellie into a housewife and young mother in their new house in Erietown, while Brick works a union job at the electric plant and, over time, starts feeling resentful.

The story shows how patterns from previous generations repeat themselves, despite people’s awareness of them. The historical period emerges through social attitudes and the impact of larger events; the McGintys’ “Jack and Jesus” wall, with its pictures of Christ and President Kennedy, has a somber meaning after JFK’s assassination. This deeply felt saga takes on tough subjects with profound honesty and carries readers along with the multifaceted, flawed characters as they move through and deal with life.

(from the Historical Novels Review, August 2020)

I have read other books by this author so I was excited about this fictional novel. I was disappointed. This story is so similar to other stories I have read. The writing is excellent. I would have given it 5 stars if the story line had been something different than what has been done in other stories.

I really enjoyed this book that follows several women through time. Growing up not far from where Connie is from, I could picture the setting and imagine what everything looked like. The writing isn't flowery but the story was engrossing.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group and Connie Schultz for free e-ARC of The Daughters of Erietown in return of my honest review.

I loved everything about The Daughters of Erietown, from plot development to characters evolution. Even tough the plot itself is quite ordinary – high school sweethearts Brick and Ellie had big plans for their future till Ellie realized she was expecting. At the same time, it shows the scope of the tragedy as the story unravels. I am not sure if Connie Schultz intends it to be tragedy but it was how I personally perceived it.


The Daughters of Erietown is a fantastic fast-pacing family saga with ups and downs. The narrative is smooth and keeps the reader entertained through the whole book. The story is packed with themes that are masterfully presented. There is love and betrayal, ideals of youth and disappointments of adulthood, good and bad choices, segregation based on race and tightness of the separate communities, everything that feels our everyday lives.

The Daughters of Erietown is definitely thought-provoking. I ask myself many questions when reading and I still don’t have answers to. Brick and Ellie made good responsible choices. Their children were mostly fine. But they might have lost their lives a little bit as both had different plans and had to re-adjust. However, Ellie was strong enough to raise 2 children and then built career as a nurse. On the other hand, Brick could not cope and chose other women to full-fill his loss of opportunity. Brick could have had a “better” life by winning scholarship and becoming a couch. However, there is a chance that it could not have happened too. Ellie’s plan was different too and only their recklessness lead to their present life. It felt like all goodness that Brick had, he used it to make “good responsible choice” to marry Ellie, and all his goodness superseded by bitterness.

I enjoy family sagas because then I can imagine how family structure may work or not, and try to learn from it. For instance, could Ellis do anything to guide Brick to better options? Or was Brick so oppressed by his family, he was looking for a way out in a bar. I mean what could Ellis had done, so he wanted to spend his free time without his family?!

In conclusion, The Daughters of Erietown made think about many themes that I was not consciously aware of. I am always grateful for that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Randon House Publishing for the advance copy of this book.

The Daughters of Erietown captures a perfect picture of life from the 1950’s and 60’s. This was a tumultuous time for women as their roles underwent some very radical changes in both expectations and in terms of freedom. As I read, there was an authentic reality that evoked a lot of memories and thoughts. Just about everything Connie Schultz writes about I can recall happening to friends or family. The attitudes of the time are spot on.

This is a tender walk down memory lane done for many, done with honesty, class and kindness. This was the time when race relations changed. There is much truth in how Schultz portrays it. Loved the writing, and how the characters were developed. You get to know them.

I think how younger readers see this book will be very different from those older who lived during these times. This is an accurate reflection of what it was like in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Thank you Connie Schultz for writing this.

Connie Schultz’s novel The Daughters of Erietown spans the decades from the 1950s through the 1970s in the industrial town of Erietown, Ohio. Ellie is a high school girl madly in love with Brick, the star basketball player.









Both are planning on going to college when Ellie discovers she is pregnant. All of their future dreams change as they marry and begin a family. Brick goes to work in the maintenance department of a coal plant, and Ellie stays home with their children.



Over the years, they mourn their lost dreams, and Brick’s unhappiness causes him to become reckless. We see their oldest child, Samantha, grow up in during turbulent times in her family and in the country as she has to make decisions for her own future.



The Daughters of Erietown is a great read for anyone from a small town as well as anyone who came of age of the 1960s and 1970s, with the intergenerational struggles that took center stage. Each character is vividly portrayed, and their decisions have consequences that reverberate for everyone. I highly recommend it.

This family saga had characters who had you gripped into their life stories and cheering them on through the years. This was a wonderful read with timeless and enthralling stories,

I’m a big fan of Connie Schultz, and knew I wanted to read this. And I couldn’t put it down. I thought the dialogue was especially good, and the characters were well-drawn.

I love Connie Schultz! I follow her on Facebook and find her so real and inspiring so I decided to read her fiction debut. It’s not original in the sense that so many women can find themselves in this story. Women trapped in bad relationships. Women not able to pursue their dreams. Ellie and Brick are the center piece. A couple that fell in love in high school and got married early. But we learn about their upbringings and how that shaped them and we move through the changes in their lives as they have their own families. And you feel for these women because we know these women.

I was given a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.