What I love about Kagen’s writing - real, likable characters and a gritty depiction of “simpler” times is present once again in Every Now and Then. The freedom and ramblings of small town, upper Midwest are very much present in this story, as well as the quirkiness of the early 60s.

Though it took me a while to get into the story, once I got going, I couldn’t put it down.
Rating this a weak four, simply because it took so long to get into the flow of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

No one writes a compelling coming of age story quite like Lesley Kagen. I have been a big fan of the author's work since reading Whistling In the Dark back in 2007. Every Now and Then takes readers back to the summer of 1960 in Summit, Wisconsin where three childhood friends set out to have an unforgettable summer. But for Frankie, Viv, and Biz, nothing can prepare them for the evil that will shatter their innocence.

I loved all the characters in this story and I must say that they wormed their way into my heart. Although her child narrator may have difficulty understanding everything and everyone around her, Kagen tackles subjects such as interracial marriage, mental illness, homophobia, and class differences which helped situate me into the context of her story's time period.

This beautiful story won't hit bookstores before October, but I just couldn't resist making this one of my summer reads.


Goodreads review 14/08/20
Publication Date 06/10/20

#EveryNowandThen #NetGalley

Every Now and Then by Lesley Kagen
3- 11 Year old Girls are Amateur Sleuths &Break Open Scandal of the Year
What could possibly go on in a sleepy backwaters town? Especially in the 50/60’s timeframe when nothing is really happening yet. But three little girls who are super inquisitive and it’s summertime and we all know when kids have no structure anything is on! Especially back then kids could freely ride their backs around town without fear of being accosted or walk downtown to the candy store or theatre. That’s what everyone thought, but you know what people get complacent and stuff went on, people just turned a blind eye to certain things. Other things they would raise holy Cain about as you will find out in this book.
At first I thought this book was going nowhere, but it takes awhile. Stick with it and it will fall into place. I just wish the author would have made it flow sooner because I almost agave up, but I am glad I didn’t.
The book is about overlooked mental health illness guidelines, homosexuality phobias, Interracial marriages, friendships between races, young girls growing up in social conservative constraints, this book touches on so many hotbeds of taboos, but they are handled with sensitivity.
I received a advanced copy from NetGalley and this is my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

It took me a while to get into this book. The synopsis grabbed my attention right away, however the first few chapters did not. I understand the author’s need to set up the story and give background on the characters, but it just seemed like a lot of filler that wasn’t necessary. Luckily it did start to pick up around 40% of the way into the book, but then lost my attention at the 85% mark. I really wish the book has been more climactic because it had a good buildup but quickly fizzled out. Not sure if I’d recommend this one.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3459064812

This book is a coming of age story which will travel you back in time. It is a slow read but it doesnt need to be a fast one. I loved it.

Wonderful coming of age story that take place in the 60s. While I didn't grow up in the 60s, I've always been obessed with reading and learning about the 60s.

This made me miss being young and miss how simple life was. You were allowed out till dark and your parents had no idea where you were or what you were doing. Sleepovers outside were done on a regular basement and friendship was valued. The friendship between the girls reminded me of the friendship in Stand By Me and I loved it. Of course they manage to find trouble and there is some mystery to be solved but still. Its the story of a summer, and its such a good one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC

The summer of 1960, and a powerful heatwave has overtaken the small town of Summit, Wisconsin. Three friends, Viv, Frankie, and Biz, 11-year-olds who call themselves the Tree Musketeers, are bold, sassy, smart, curious--and their imaginations run wild in the blistering heat. They love listening to gossip, spying on adults, and willfully disobeying their Aunt Jane May. They are also fascinated with the Broadhurst Mental Institution, touched by the plight of the patients, naive about the darkness and pain of what happens there--until it threatens all of those they hold dear.
Lesley Kagen excels in writing nostalgic coming of age novels, with young voices so clear and genuine. Their slang, their youthfulness, their innocence, their determination to do what they believe is right--at least in their own young minds. Readers are placed directly into the time and the place, with not only pop culture references, but also with allusions to the underlying issues of the time--racism, the treatment of people with mental illness, homosexuality--that create an underlying tension in the story.
The story is told from the point of view of Biz, who is looking back in time to that life-changing summer when she was 11 years old. Her recollections are written with warmth, humor, honesty, and poignancy--there were many times I laughed out loud, and just as many times my heart cracked a little in sorrow.

Readers that grew up during this time period will enjoy this coming to age story surrounding three adolescence girls. The horror movies during the 60s were truly a highlight for kids during this era that I could relate with. There are lots of characters to sort through at times and a lot going on. Hot summer months in a small town with imaginative preteens knows no bounds!

At first glance one might assume Every Now and Then is a coming-of-age-tale about three feisty adolescent girls who succumb to the intrigue of a small town mystery, and it is. But more importantly, this is a book about the "other"; the color of one's skin, sexual proclivity, or mental acuity. Lesley Kagen inhabits her young characters in a way that sends the reader reeling back through time until you forget where her young protagonists leave off and your eleven-year-old self begins. So, too, will those of us who grew up in small town 1960s distinctly recall the discernible line between "us" and "them" as poverty and race define privilege and prejudice.

Every Now and Then is a slow reveal, drawing you in through exceptional storytelling, with plenty of heart and humor to keep you turning the pages.

I was torn on how to review this book, I enjoyed the overall general story, but I felt like there was a lot put in that just didn't need to be there. It felt cluttered, if that makes sense.
This book follows three 11 year old best friends, Frankie, Viv, and Biz. Biz being the narrator of their summer adventure in 1960. The girls are scary movie fans and talk about things that scare them alot, which is one of the reasons they made themselves a summer to-do list of things they wanted to do. As well as to make sure they each did things they wanted to do. One of the big things on that list was to sneak into The Broadhurst mental hospital that Biz's dad was a doctor at. They heard of the room in the basement called the Chamber of Horrors. Their summer revolves around this institution and the things happening there that change everyone's lives that summer.
Introducing us to the characters was quick and there were so many other characters talked about early on that I even had trouble following at times. The book talked about alot of sensitive issues, including sexual orientation, race, and the way people who were different were treated. I feel like the messages given were very important.
I'm giving this book a solid 3 Stars, wishing the beginning led into more meat of the story early on instead of me reading and wondering when things were going to get moving.
Thank you Netgalley and Alcove Press for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

What can I say about this book? Unfortunately, I cannot finish it because I cannot seem to get into the story line. I read up to chapter six and I just had to stop. The storyline seems to go in all different directions and this is one of those books you have to have absolute 100% concentration to understand what's going on and what they are saying and I was not able to accomplish that, at all. If you are wanting a quick, easy read, this is not it. I kind of smiled through some of the funny parts, but they did not make me flat out laugh out loud. It seemed like most of the characters were drunk or high or both, which is possible since the story is set in the 1960's. Maybe I just don't get it.
I read some of the other reviews last night because I really wasn't sure what to think about this book for my review. A lot of people thought it was great and that they could personally relate to the characters, not me. They also tried comparing it to "To Kill a Mockingbird". I remember reading this book in school and how much I liked it, but this story is far from being compared to a great classic. Big thumbs down for me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book, it just wasn't for me.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: Every Now and Then is a coming-of-age fiction/historical fiction novel coming out in October 2020. It was written by Lesley Kagen, a NYT bestselling author (and actress/speaker) who has published 10 novels. It’s set in the summer of 1960, which is the summer that changed the lives of three best friends forever.

PLOT RUNDOWN/BASICS: Every Now and Then begins at the start of the hottest summer on record in the small town of Summit in 1960, where three eleven-year-old best friends - Frankie, Viv, and the narrator, Biz - are let out of school early due to the heat. The girls are excited for the early start to their normal summer activities: watching horror movies at the theater on Saturdays, visiting (and spying on) the Broadhurst Mental Institution, and spending all of their nights in Biz's treehouse. Biz's father is the town's doctor whose ancestors founded the city, so they lived in a large mansion (the "crowned jewel" of the neighborhood) with Biz's aunt, Jane May. Her mother had died shortly after childbirth, so Aunt Jane May - her mother's sister - had moved in to help raise Biz and keep up with the household duties.

Biz's father, Doc, built her the treehouse (the "Taj Mahal of hideouts," Biz says) as a memorial to his late wife, and Frankie and Viv spend every summer night in the treehouse with Biz...as long as they’re all getting along, of course. They call themselves the Tree Muskateers; Viv is the short-tempered but charming one, Biz is the hopeful peacemaker, and Frankie is the brains. Frankie is also biracial, which was seen socially as a cardinal sin at the time; her mother Dell was black, and her unknown father was white, so she was "adopted" by her mother's Italian employers to keep the town racists at bay.

The girls spend much of their summers in Mud Town, where the people of color live, and visiting Broadhurst...but this summer, they create a list of goals to accomplish. They want to get to know the mental patients better, and their aim is to find a way to access the yard where the orderlies take the non-violent patients to enjoy the fresh air. The town holds a meeting regarding a violent child murderer who’s being transferred to Broadhurst, but the girls feel safe; the violent offenders are locked up on the third floor, and besides, they know that the adults cannot be trusted in matters regarding race or mental illness. (At the town meeting regarding Wally Hopper, the child murderer, Biz says, “When a handful of men leapt to their feet, raised their fists, and yelled, 'Yeah, yeah!' it reminded me of the scene in Frankenstein when the villagers came hunting for the monster with torches blazing and pitchforks waving.")

But there’s more to Broadhurst than meets the eye, and soon the girls find themselves in over their heads. People are disappearing, and there are rumors among the staff (and in Biz’s house among her father and Aunt Jane May, late at night) that the doctor is performing experiments that are at best, unethical, and at worst...well, Biz isn’t sure. The determination of the three girls to set things straight and uncover the answers to all of their small town’s secrets - including daring missions led in the dark woods in the middle of the night - will land them in a world of trouble they never imagined, and it will leave them all with lasting scars.

MY THOUGHTS: This book was my first book by Kagen, and I truly enjoyed it and found it to be a fantastic read. The release date is October, but it describes a nostalgic summer as a child/preteen so perfectly that I wish it was released now for everyone to enjoy. I give it a rare 10 stars, and I actually burst into tears at the last paragraph of the last chapter, which was so touching and tied the entire story together so beautifully. (I teared up again just rereading it for the review.)

I think it's also an incredibly timely book in regards to its discussion on race and prejudice in 1960. Biz, the protaganist, often waxes poetic about her dreams of unity and reconciliation for the future; she is already sharp enough to see how the townspeople truly feel about the people of color living in Mud Town: "No one had yet challenged the unspoken rule in Summit: you colored people stay on your side and we'll stay on ours - unless you've come to do yard work, clean house, or haul away junk." By the end of the novel, she comes to understand what Jimbo meant when he told her that "Mud towners" (the people of color) never show up at town meetings because, "Us givin' our opinions to those in charge is 'bout as useful as throwin' a T-bone to a toothless dog.'"

Kagan writes Biz as a sympathetic character; she still has the innocence and hopefulness of a child, but she often displays a maturity beyond her years. Biz says that people who suffer from any kind of mental illness are "almost always portrayed as deranged monsters" in the movies. She and her friends are 11 and are young enough to only see the humanity and similarities between themselves and the people of Mud Town, and the patients at Broadhurst...but she realizes that the adults have prejudices that keep them from seeing these truths. And the book doesn't end without a hopeful note; at the Fourth of July celebration, Biz says, "But, you know, watching just about everyone in town breaking tradition to enjoy folks from both sides of the tracks making beautiful music together on the birthday of the land of the free and home of the brave, I couldn't help but feel that I was witnessing a small miracle."

The historic setting and nostalgia of the time period makes the story feel safer than it should, especially knowing that there are parts of this novel that read like a horror movie. There are predators in 1960 just like there are predators today, and the woods surrounding the mental institution are not the safest place for young girls to be roaming free...which they’ll discover more than once, and which allows Kagen to use her poetic writing style in a darker and more Poe-like manner: “The town had fallen into a scared silence beneath a moonless sky, and the air was so hot and thick that it dampened the crickets and frogs and other night sounds to near nothing as well. Or maybe those creatures of God were sensing that evil was on the prowl and they didn’t want to give their hiding places away.”

Last but certainly not least, the girls themselves and their friendship - despite the differences between them - makes the story an unforgettable read. Seeing how they made up for each other's shortcomings and came to each other's aid was touching, especially when viewed from the lens of their time: "We had black and white blood running in our veins, and if the three of us could get along, hell, anybody could." The brief prologue, and satisfying epilogue, let us know not just the effects of that summer on the trio in 1960, but how it played out within the rest of their adulthood as well.

I absolutely adored this book. Whistling in the Dark was one of my favourite coming of age stories, and the nostalgia from this book just made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It started off a little slow but the character development more than made up for that, you just wanted to hang out with them and I loved the girls friendship and Aunt Jane May - she was a wonderful character. Beautifully written, I really didn’t want this to end - one of my favourites this year definitely.

Well written story. Kept me engaged the entire time. A page turner for sure! Looking forward to reading more books by this author!

After having read reviews comparing this book to Where the Crawdads Sing (one of my all-time favourites) and To Kill a Mockingbird (another favourite), I knew I had to give this one a read. Unfortunately, I found that this one missed the mark for me. While I can see why it was compared to these two beloved novels and definitely has some similar elements (nostalgic coming-of-age story in a small town), I found that it just wasn't as compelling as I had hoped. I had to slog my way through the first 2/3 and then all the good stuff seemed to be squished at the end.

A sweet coming-of-age novel set during the a 1960s summer. A nice break from heavier reading material.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52191410

I am a big fan of Lesley Kagen, have read most of her books, and often recommend her writing to others. Unfortunately, this particular novel did not resonate with me :( At first, I was put off because the novel seemed like a take on To Kill a Mockingbird (which should never, ever be done in my opinion). Why did I think this....spunky main character being raised by a widowed father (doctor this time, not a lawyer), a strong mother figure (in this case an aunt, not a neighbor), a "boogie man" (think Boo Radley) in the form of the mental institution in town and the children's fascination with it, and lastly, three children (one a somewhat-orphan like Dill) detailing their adventures in a small town. There was even a scene where the children hid in the rafters to discover what is really going on at the mental institution (reminded me somewhat of the mob scene...although not as important or moving, in TKM)...and the story is told by an adult remembering a childhood summer! So I struggled. This is not TKM, but it felt like it had borrowed too many pages from it. Secondly, I had a hard time connecting with the child narrator and her friends. These characters felt really one dimensional....always breaking the rules imposed by adults, yet. always referencing some "rules: (like rock, paper scissors shoot outs and oaths that can't be broken) that they have imposed on themselves as "Tree Musketeers." They use the same phrases often, and they just felt repetitive and the same. Disappointing. There were a few things that were promising....touching on the idea of race and homosexuality in the 1960s, the feel of a small town where someone is always watching...and watching out for you, and prepping for a "big time" small town 4th of July celebration, But even the crime the girls solve in the end was a bit of a let down. So in the end, I will read this author again with the hope that this is just one novel that didn't work for me in particular. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

Anyone who grew up in the sixties will love this novel and reminisce on the fun times that were had in those summers when school was finally complete. You rode your bikes to the creek, to town or to a friend's house. You had sleepovers in a tree house with your very best friends, or you all were on a mission to find some fun when you were specifically told not to go and look for trouble or else!
This is the summer for the "Tree Musketeers" who are trying to solve a mystery at the Broadhurst Mental Institution. Why and how do three patients escape the building and will they kill someone?
It is a haunting story and one that everyone will enjoy as Biz and her friends find out all the haunting, tragic secrets that are happening in this facility!
Well done, well written with suspense included.
I was sent back to my own childhood while I tried to solve this mystery with Biz and her "sisters"!

This story has a character for everyone to relate to - it’s full of mental health issues which I appreciate and loved. It made even the least like able character endearing. I love coming of age stories and Kayan delivered it!

This was a really great coming of age story about 3 girls growing up in a small town in the 60s which I loved! I would definitely recommend.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.