Chuck Ayers has lost his wonderful wife Cat to cancer. He is totally lost and has no direction. Then there is Ella she is heartbroken because her daughter has been kidnapped. And last we have Kirsten that is crushed because her father has been killed. The three individuals lives fade into each other.
It was good but depressing too.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and to Scribner the publisher.

While this is not a holiday book, I really appreciated this book this holiday season. It's a book that offers a gentle reminder to show kindness to others as we don't know what struggles they may be facing in life. It's a book that offers hope and comfort and I think we can all agree that we need a little extra of that in the busy holiday months. So while there isn't talk of holiday magic, there's certainly something magical about hope and love.

Brief synopsis: This book follows three individuals each grieving a major loss in their life: a loss of a spouse, a missing child, and a loss of a father. Small acts of kindness shown to them and by them help to keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually bring them into each others' lives when they need it the most.

This was an emotional book for me but I'm also really emotional this month. So while this book was incredibly sad at times, it also brought a strange comfort to me and I'm really glad I read it.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

—Book Review—

Title: A Quiet Life
Author: Ethan Joella
Publisher: Scribner Books
@scribnerbooks
Genre: Fiction

A Quiet Life is the type of book that will nudge and remind you that you simply never know what someone else in your own community may be going through. Human connections are what life is all about. That kindness matters. That grief doesn’t have a time table and there is no right or wrong way to go about things.

@bookfriendsbookclub sat down with author @joellawriting last night and he described himself as an “eternal optimist”. Declaring he is the type of person who wants to believe in informercial products, “why wouldn’t they work!?” You can really see his lovely personality shine brightly in his characters. And, he wrote three very different characters, all dealing with change and grief, but at different stages of their lives.

First, you have Chuck, at seventy years old who lost his wife Cat in the past year. After a year of firsts, the time has come for their yearly trip to Hilton Head. Chuck wrestles with moving on and if he can go on this trip without Cat. How will he enjoy retirement without his wife? Next you have separated mom, Ella, who’s daughter has gone missing. Her life is a fog without her daughter and working two jobs to get by. Lastly, Kirstin is twenty years old and looking for her next sign in life. She hasn’t been able to move forward since losing her father. For now she works at an animal shelter. But does she want to go to vet school? Date? Visit her dad’s family in Italy?

You might see the words grief, widower, death, missing child and be concerned about the direction of this book. The author handles everything with care and grace. I promise when you get to the end of the book you will be left filled with hope.

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ At just 300 pages you will fly through this book, but want to slow it down and savor because it’s just that good. When you aren’t reading it you will miss the characters. The timing of this book is perfect, I think. This is the season of giving and quiet reflection and this book with fill that for you. A must read!

"Be someone's cardinal"

Loved this authors first book and this was better in my opinion. I enjoyed the length and the story was still really well paced. Loss is a tough subject to tackle authentically abc it’s done well here!

While I enjoyed two of the story lines, one of them felt meh. I liked the audio but I didn’t think the intertwining was so amazing. It was better done in his last book. 3.5 stars

Last year I read and enjoyed Ethan Joella's debut novel, A Little Hope, so I was very excited to read his sophomore release A Quiet Life and it did not disappoint. A Quiet Life tells the story of three characters who are each dealing with struggling with the loss of a loved one. While ultimately about loss, it's a beautifully written, heartwarming novel about supporting one another through tough times.

A Quiet Life is the sophomore novel by @joellawriting and was the heartwarming story I didn't know I needed. ⁣
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I enjoyed #ALittleHope last year but I loved this one even more. And while it's ultimately a feel good story, it also covers the pain and heartache so many carry. Feeling less alone and supporting one another, even when we haven't walked in each other's shoes, really is what it is all about⁣
⁣
Life has felt challenging this year in many ways, and A Quiet Life really helps restore your faith in humanity. If you are looking for a book to close out 2022, I highly recommend this one! Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for my gifted review copies.

Happy Pub Day to my absolute favorite read of 2022. I read A Little Hope last year and adored it so I had high expectations for A Quiet Life, but I didn’t expect to be absolutely blown away. This was stunning, beautiful, breathtaking, tender, etc…I could go on and on. It is such a testament to humanity and that so many of us are just doing the best we can and what the best decision looks like is going to differ for every person. It was a gentle reminder that everyone has hard things going on in their lives that aren’t public facing and if we could connect on those items we could better support ourselves, each other and our communities. If my bookstagram could convince you to read one book this year, this is the book I would pick.

Huge thank you to @scribnerbooks for providing me an ARC. Loved it so much I ordered the hard copy!

A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella

A Quiet Life is a work of fiction detailing the lives of three independent individuals who are each suffering in their own grief. Chuck and his wife Cat, loved to go down to Hilton Head every winter leaving their home in Pennsylvania for some warmth of the south. But after Cat dies, Chuck struggles with the decision of whether or not to go to Hilton Head on his own. Ella is working two jobs, as an early morning newspaper delivery person and she also works in a bridal salon. She is trying to save up enough money for the day that her daughter Reilly returns. Kirsten works in an animal shelter. She is still struggling after the horrible death of her father. They were very close and now has difficulty with getting close to people. She works with two men at the animal shelter and is starting to have feelings for both of them.
During the course of the novel, these three lives become intertwined with each other in some unexpected ways. This novel is sad with a touch of sweetness. If you enjoy books that are character driven, this would be a book you might want to pick up.
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I loved Ethan Joella’s book A Little Hope so I was very excited to read his newest. A Quiet Life is a perfect title for this beautifully written novel; Joella’s characters are sad, but the story is also comforting and hopeful. I love a story that makes me deeply, even when those feelings are sad ones. This story is about how to deal with grief and the importance of human connection. Ethan Joella is quickly becoming one of my favorite, must-read literary fiction authors.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for this ARC.

One of my favorite books for 2022. Love that we get 3 different stories from characters from 3 different generations. Made me restore my faith in humanity- and not nearly as sad as I expected it would be.

This is an immediate top 10 of the year read for me. I read this with my book club as well as others and I don't think a single person didn't love it. It was several of ours favorite of the month.

The intermingling of the stories and the characters were so well done. It was one of those books that I was sad to near the end of. The book made you feel all the emotions. Each character was facing a major event in life. Despite each of these being very different the author made you care about all of them and become fully invested in each storyline.

I most certainly recommend this book for a wide range of readers.

Ain’t nothing like an emotional, character driven read. I just loved this book.

There’s something about an emotional, character driven story that really gets me, and Ethan Joella is exceptional at writing them. This was breathtaking.

This book made my heart sing a soft song of hope for the human race

Ethan Joella has a unique gift: the ability to write characters that leap off the page, into our hearts. He has done it now for the second time…

*Kirsten, a young woman stuck in time, grieving her father, pondering her future.

*Ella, grieving her missing daughter, wondering if she will ever see her again, questioning where life will lead.

*And then there’s Chuck, the axis the story revolves around, grieving his wife of many decades, examining his past mistakes, and questioning if he has a life ahead.

As these lives weave in and out, glancing off each other, forming bonds, changing direction, I fell in love with each of them.

This is a quiet story of everyday lives. I teared up more than once, I related to so many things, and I wanted to hug all three of these humans.

This was such an emotional book. Joella takes three people with separate lives and intertwines them in a way you’d never think of. This book talks a lot about grief and how hard it is to move on after an excruciating loss, but it is written so beautifully. This book was set in a town not far from where I grew up so it was a little nostalgic for me 🥹 If you’re looking for an easy, charming read then this is the one for you!

Thank you Netgally and Scribner books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A Quiet Life ❄️

“𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟.”

Every once in awhile you read a book that reminds you why you love reading so much. This was my refresher. I absolutely loved this book, I had a feeling I would after reading the authors debut a little hope.

Contemporary storylines addressing themes of grief/loss and hope. Multiple POVs that senselessly blend together. Really just an exceptional book.

Ty netgalley for the ARC!

From my blog: Always With a Book

I absolutely loved Ethan Joella’s debut novel, A Little Hope, so of course I was thrilled when I received a copy of his sophomore book and I loved it just as much, if not a little more. While both books are quiet reads, they are emotionally powerful ones that stay with you long after you finish reading them.

This book is about loss and the different ways people experience it and how they try to move forward. It alternates between three points of view and I immediately fell in love with all three characters, plus the secondary ones as well. The author has such a wonderful way of creating dynamic, richly drawn characters that are so real and relatable. I felt like Chuck, Ella and Kirsten were all sketches of people I know in some way and I could even see bits of myself in them.

The beauty of this story is in the way these three lives intersect. It’s little acts of kindness that bring them together. It’s a great reminder that we never know what someone else is going through and why human connection is so important. And it is this message that couldn’t come at a more opportune time when we enter such a busy season. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stress of life and forget that kindness goes a long way. This isn’t a flashy novel, but rather a story about life – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and how it is through forgiveness, acceptance and kindness that we can find a way forward when life gets tough.

I loved this story and will be recommending it to everyone!


Audio thoughts: I listened to this one and loved that there was a cast of narrators. Having three narrators for each of the three main characters really made this audio stand out and I think Stacey Glemboski, Melissa Redmond and Byron Wagner did a great job bringing the story to life. Each infused just the right amount of emotion into their voice as needed and their pacing was spot on.

This is a quiet story, about love, about overcoming grief and taking tentative steps toward something new, and about our desperate need for connection, especially in times of trouble.

The book follows the lives of three characters—Chuck, a widower still coming to terms with grief and guilt after his wife’s death, as he tries to will himself to make their annual sojourn to Hilton Head without her; Ella, a young mother struggling to hold on after her daughter goes missing; and Kirsten, whose father’s unexpected death has left her in a kind of emotional limbo. The three will interact in ways that will change them profoundly.

Joella’s storytelling, is emotional, powerful and impactful. A definite must read.

A Quiet Life
Author, Ethan Joella
Available now!

Thank you @scribnerbooks, @ethanjoellawriting, and @netgalley for my e- arc, but you know I had to pre- order this beaty anyway! A Little Hope was one of my top 10 in 2021 and A Quiet Life will be in my top 10 this year!

I just love Joella's insightful and moving writing style that allows his novels to be fully immersed in his themes of hope and humanity that flawlessly defines the heart of human relationships.

Beautifully character driven in a way that allows readers to identify with each of the characters, A Quiet Life follows three unique individuals who are struggling with loss, meaning, and how to move forward in their grief.

Check, Ella, and Kristen's lives connect and intertwine in meaningful, yet unexpected ways that allow for each of them to learn from the other and ultimately assist in their healing and offer one another much needed hope and growth.

A perfect read for this time of year when we are all searching for connections, love, joy, and strength.

I really appreciate the way Ethan Joella writes about how small the world really is. He puts it into a perspective that really just lends to the heartbreaking nature of the books he writes. I will say, however, this book did not hit me in my feels nearly as hard as A Little Hope did. With that being said though, I feel like this book was still very very good! I just think the nature of the storylines in this book did not pull at my heartstrings the way I wanted them to. I sobbed repeatedly reading A Little Hope and I sort of went into this book expecting the same experience and while it didn’t make me sob, I think it will stick with me forever in many other ways. These characters were so human and I feel like moving forward I want “to be someone’s cardinal” and really understand that the only way I can help others is to ask them.

I will pick up anything Ethan Joella puts out in the future! Auto-buy author for sure!