After suffering a personal loss, Grace moves in with her great-aunt, Maggie, to care for her. What follows is a story of friendship and love. Grace and Maggie support one another and give each other what they need, including the needed space for Grace to process her loss and find the strength to move forward. The supporting characters were excellent and well written as well. Two special characters were the neighbor, Matt, and the nurse, Henry, who added a lot to the story and made me smile. It's always nice to read about men who are strong and genuinely nice guys.

I got 40% of the way into the book before giving up. The parts I found annoying were the constant reference to money, style, and her inane thoughts on redecorating her aunts house.
I couldn't relate to any of the characters and I felt that the author was just throwing words in to make the word count. For instance going on and on about what redecorating needed to be done outside before settling on redoing the land scaping.
The going after the younger neighbor man....blah.
It seemed to me that Grace and Maggie were not connected at all. Grace couldn't wait for Maggie to die to fix up the place.
This just didn't gel with me.

This is a lovely meditative read. I read it in one sitting. Not a lot happens but it is an easy compelling read and addresses some universal issues we all deal with at some point or other; grief, love, end of life, family, heartbreak, going home
That said, there is a lovely thread of humor throughout and reading this book had me smiling quite often.
The characters are all likeable and realistic; human beings at their best, mostly. There is a level of unsaid sensitivity evident amongst them that I wish I saw more of in real life. It’s not often we get to read a book about the close relationship of an aunt and a niece and I enjoyed that aspect. The touch of romance was endearing without being overly dramatic.

I’m so impressed with the writing of this debut novel. It’s light-hearted and engaging even as it deals with much of the unpleasantness of life and death. The dialogue is movie ready!
The ending satisfied this reader; some things resolved and a touch of hope for the future. Ultimately, dealing with grief and moving on is an individual journey and Curran doesn’t sugar coat anything.
I’ll definitely be checking out anything else this talented author publishes. In fact, I’d love to revisit these characters in the next stage of their lives. I missed them at the end and that’s a testament to how well the author developed each one, even the minor players like the doctor and the brother.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kinsale Press for the preview and the introduction to a new author to follow.

A great read! Started out a little slow and confusing but once I got into it, couldn't put it down. The story of Grace and her grief of losing her husband to joining her great aunt Maggie in her final days brought Grace to closure and peace. Maggie was truly a character to be reckoned with! Despite the sadness in Maggie's final days, this brought great joy to Grace and those that surrounded her and assisted along the way!

I received an advance copy of, Hungry Hill, by Eileen Patricia Quinn. I thought this would be a really good book, but it was not. It was boring.

Hungry Hill is a really great story of family. This book handles grief, loss and tragedy in a really gentle fashion but with plot and characters it warms your heart and reminds you of all the wonderful things about love and life. I love Grace and Maggie and I especially love how their relationship is handled in this book. This booked is really heart-warming and I came away from this book really content with the writing and overarching plot.

Synopsis: Grace Cavanaugh suddenly became a widow when her husband Michael, died unexpectedly. She misses Michael so much that she can’t stand living in the house that they shared with all of their things but she also can’t stand the thought of someone else living in it so she hires someone to look after the house and grounds and she rents a cramped apartment for her and her dogs. About sixteen months later, Grace receives a phone call from her 86-year-old great aunt Maggie asking Grace for her assistance. Maggie has cancer and is dying and she needs someone to stay with her. Maggie still lives in the house that she was raised in and she doesn’t want to have to move to assisted living if she doesn’t have to. Grace has fond memories of her great-aunt and sees this as an opportunity to maybe get a break from all the memories of the town she and Michael lived in.

My thoughts: I thought that the overall premise and theme of the book was great. We have Grace coming back to look after her dying great-aunt and not only does she have to confront her grief associated with Michael but also prepare herself for Maggie’s upcoming death. Now, the problems that I had with the book …. So we’re told that Maggie is grief stricken over her husband’s death to the point where she can’t even bring herself to go into the house they shared yet shortly after she arrives at Maggie’s, she starts a sexual relationship with the neighbor. Personally, if I’m that grief stricken over someone I had a long-term intimate relationship with, I wouldn’t be looking at jumping into bed with someone else. I also think that Maggie’s reaction to Grace having this relationship is very odd; for example, she asks Grace if she and the neighbor have “done the nasty” yet. Maggie has self-described herself as an 86 year old virgin. She also is very connected to her Catholic faith and attends Mass every night and has for years. I just don’t believe that a woman of that generation who is that connected to her church and is an 86 year old virgin would be asking her great-niece this question. I just felt that there was a disconnect on some of the ways that the characters acted.

As stated previously, I think the premise of the story was good and I really liked Maggie as she was quite spunky but I definitely feel that the book had some issues. Thank you to Netgalley and Kinsale Press for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me a minute to actually get into. There were sad parts, funny parts, touching moments, a bit of romance, and a lot of longing for what might have been. The relationship between Grace and her great aunt Maggie was touching and beautiful, and I can only say that I hope someone will be there for me like Grace was for Maggie if I’m ever in that position. From the middle of the book until very near the end, the book had me captured and I enjoyed what I was reading. However, I was very disappointed in the ending. It felt as if there wasn’t really an ending, but that the book just stopped. Had I known that at the beginning, I would not have even ventured to read it. Yet, I am glad I did and for that reason I would probably rate the book 3 1/2 stars, but because I enjoyed the good in it, I will give it a generous four stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

DNF'ed at 25%. This book is just not for me. I found the prose disappointing as it lacked eloquence, and often felt like I was just being presented with facts and events with little emotional tone, rather than reading a story unfold. I particularly thought the parts when Grace met the male neighbours and the frequent mentions of their asses and her horniness off-putting. Instead, perhaps more descriptions relating back to her late husband and her grief would have illustrated the same sentiment.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kinsale Press for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hungry Hill by Eileen Patricia Curran caught my eye with the cover initially.
This is an extremely sensitive and meaningful novel about watching a loved one suffer and slowly pass away. It is written with a great deal of compassion and understanding of the complexities of love, loss and grief. I was hooked… I wiped tears away tears…

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I laughed, out loud and shed a tear or two. Grace Cavanaugh finds herself at the end of a deep, dark and solitary year, mourning for a husband and life lost, barely existing in a barren lonely apartment with three dogs and little else. With such a dark and dreary start I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing, out loud, only two chapters in. Grace is a bit of a wise ass, her comebacks and quips are unexpected and hilarious. Favoured Aunt Maggie Reilly, a rather independent salty soul needs her help. Grace weaves her way to discovering how to live life again, while navigating how to care for such an independent and outspoken soul, knowing full well the ending will bring her even more loss. Like all good novels, I was sad when it ended. I look forward to reading more from Eileen Curran

I was granted a free copy of this text by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was tough to read for me because the loss of a patriarch for a family is fresh in my brain. Definite trigger warning. Overall though, the ending was worth the read.

I love this book. It touches on every human emotion, love, grief, insecurity, guilt, and does it beautifully. The characters are so likable and relatable, flaws and all. Grace is so funny and her aunt Maggie is a feisty eighty six years old. Matt is a neighbor who is also funny. The author has taken loss of a loved one and the many ways we handle that and written a beautiful heartwrenching story. I highly recommend. I can't wait to see what this author writes.next!

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this incredible ARC for my honest opinion.

I wanted so badly to relate to, and sympathize with Grace. For the first half of the book I can’t even count how many times I rolled my eyes and thought “this woman is so annoying.” Her snobbish ways and materialistic attitude made it very hard to connect with her on an emotional level. With that being said this was a lovely account of grief after losing loved ones. As someone who has watched a loved one die of cancer I think the author hit the nail on the head. Once Grace stopped referring to her car as “the beemer” at every turn I was able to put my annoyance to the side and enjoy a beautiful story of family, connections, and relationships both new and old.

Yet another book where the cover, title and blurb lull you into making assumptions and the book turns out to be something else entirely.

The story is told to us in first person from the point of view of Grace Cavanaugh, a city slicker who is depressed after the sudden death of her husband. She is summoned for help by her grand aunt Maggie, an eighty-six year old who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Realising that a change of place and pace will work wonders for her, Grace decides to pack up her bags and her two dogs, and move to Maggie's locality, a blue-collar neighborhood called Hungry Hill. There, she finds what she was looking for, and even more in the form of a hot younger neighbour Matt, who reciprocates her attraction.

For a book to work for you, at least one of three things must click: the characters, the plot, and the match with your expectations (what mood you are in and what you were looking for when you picked up the book.) Unfortunately, all three points failed for me to varying extents.

Expectations:
The Goodreads summary made me feel that this would be a thoughtful and emotional read. But the story barely touched any deep chords in my heart. It kept flitting from one scene to another and even the terminal diagnosis of a lovable character didn't make me feel sad.

Characters:
There is only one true lead character in the story and that's Grace. The two main secondary characters are Maggie and Matt. Of these, Maggie is the only one with whom I felt a connect. She is sassy, funny and bold, and doesn't allow her age or illness to break her down.

Matt's character, though in a key role, is quite underdeveloped. He comes in only to serve as eye candy or emotional support as required. There is neither depth nor growth in his arc. I didn't understand the chemistry between Grace and him at all. Their romance felt very rushed.

All this could have been ignored if the lead character were strong. But I couldn't identify with Grace even a little bit. Grace is very snobbish, too vain about her looks, quite materialistic, overly brand conscious, excessively flirtatious, and a huge spendthrift, none of which are qualities I like. To add to this, her character arc is confusing. On one hand, she is shown mourning her dead husband to the extent that she can't even sell their house. On the other, she lusts after the 29 year old Matt, flirts with him openly, and doesn't shy away from going on dates or getting physical. Grace's age is never revealed in the entire story, though it comes up many times by virtue of Matt being "much younger". That missing information makes positioning her thoughts and decisions even more difficult. One more thing that irritated me about her was that when she had to visit multiple shops, she went by alphabetical order of shop names rather than by location or proximity. Who the heck does that!?!?

The rest of the characters are very minor and come and go from the story as required. Not a single one of them is developed clearly.

Plot development and writing:
Almost the entire plot can be narrowed down to four basic events: dinners, shopping, lust/love between Grace/Matt/dead husband, and health concerns for Maggie. The story keeps flitting across these four plot points and it gets boring and repetitive after a while.

The writing is just about average. Sometimes, the thoughts and ideas are repeated after a few sentences, giving you a weird sense of déjà-vu. A few word uses are incorrect. For instance, a Catholic priest Father Brian claims that he has to "perform Mass". No priest will consider mass a performance. A priest celebrates mass.

Maybe my expectations were the main problem because I had pictured a very different book from the title and cover image and this was too shallow in comparison. If you are looking for a very light read that doesn't tax your brain too much, this could be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kinsale Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been reading Hungry Hill at the same time as watching the HBO drama Mare of Eastown and in the moments between Maggie and her great niece Grace, that could have been dialogue written for the scenes between Mare and her mother, played brilliantly by Jean Smart. Those moments made me smile and had me invested in their relationship going forward. This is a novel about love, not just romantic love, but familial love and the kind of bonds that come from going through something tough together. Grace is at a crossroads in life, I enjoyed her intelligence and her smart ass sense of humour. However, lately she’s felt lost and has wondered if she isn’t in danger of going completely crazy. She’s struggling with grief after her world fell apart on Valentine’s Day, when her husband Michael suddenly died after their romantic dinner. Unable to be in their home, a beautiful Victorian house, she has ended up in a three bedroom flat and has retreated completely from the world with her rescue dogs. She’s so lost she doesn’t know how to rebuild, when a call comes from her Great Aunt Maggie. She is 86, as smart as a whip but very ill and in need of someone to take care of her. Grace and Maggie had a bond when she was a little girl and Maggie is hoping that enough of a link still remains for Grace to help her. At this point Grace has barely had the energy to walk the dogs. I connected with that sense of being bone weary and the way grief can feel like a physical ailment, snuffing out all but the basic tasks in life. Grace answers Maggie’s call, not just out of familial duty, but because she needs a distraction from her own grief. She hopes to find herself again in the act of caring for someone else. I loved the way these two women come together and are each other’s saviours in a way - or at least floating on the same life raft. I worried though, that just as Maggie found herself able to form a bond with her aunt, she would lose her and the cycle of grief would start over again. I thought this was a gentle and sensitive look at loss, but also resilience and the ability to move forward - even if it is in a different direction. I loved Maggie’s character and the different personalities of the dogs. I related to the place Grace finds herself in and there’s some truth in the way she’s stumbling forwards not necessarily in the right direction. There’s nothing straightforward about loss and it doesn’t automatically make someone wiser or more able to avoid mistakes along the way.

I loved this debut novel by Eileen Patricia Curran. This novel took an excellent look at loss and grief, heartbreak, love and connection, moving on and resilience—all wrapped up in one. And it was freaking hilarious, too! I found myself laughing out loud multiple times.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with every single character. She had a way of making the characters come to life, and they’ll definitely stay with me long past finishing this book. I feel like I know them in real life 😂

It was witty, charming, romantic, light-hearted, real, and heavy all at once. I can’t wait to see more from this author in the future.

I went into this expecting nothing new...another bittersweet story of grief and learning to carry on, with some lovable characters thrown in. It was indeed nothing new, and unfortunately for me, lacking in lovable characters. The stereotypical feisty old woman was fun. However, I couldn’t relate to or enjoy the wealthy, snobbish “completely devastated” widow, who (while otherwise unable to cope socially since her loss) was capable of gleeful horniness with her younger neighbor. Not a bad book, just...nothing special.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. Ifo II nd the plot interesting and the characters were entertaining

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Initially I was sceptical about reading a book written by and based in the US with American-isms, but this was quickly dispelled and I found myself living every moment and completely absorbed in the story. It was so true to life and engaging.

This is an extremely sensitive and meaningful novel about watching a loved one suffer and slowly pass away. It is written with a great deal of compassion and understanding of the complexities of love, loss and grief.. Beautifully written and for a debut novel the author has excelled.