Meg is not your typical young adult. When she was sixteen, the sudden loss of her entire family (as well as her own secret, unborn child) inspired her to immerse herself in a life of faith. Now 24, she is Sister Angeline in a cloistered convent where she finds comfort in isolation and prayers for others. Her world is rocked when her prioress informs her that the archdiocese of Chicago is closing the convent due to a decline in both staffing and funding, and she is being sent to Light of the Sea convent in the Pacific northwest. This progressive group is vastly different from what she is accustomed to, and she is reluctant to go. Once there, she is welcomed by the other nuns, but she is hesitant to embrace the progressive atmosphere, where the women move freely about the community, hold their own services (without the leadership of a male priest), and wear regular clothing. Angeline retains her “sister” title and her habit, desperately holding on to the familiar. As she relaxes into her new life, she begins to cherish the ragtag group she is now a part of, seeing the needs of the townspeople and how her convent is meeting them, and recognizing others’ losses that she can relate to. Angeline is increasingly drawn out of her self-imposed seclusion even as the convent is targeted by an anonymous bully. This is a delight, with exquisite writing and memorable characters.

Angeline is a beautifully written novel about a young nun struggling to come to terms with her difficult past. Through gorgeous prose and larger than life characters, Anna Quinn describes how Angeline is sent to a radical convent in the Pacific Northwest that operates unlike anything she's seen before. As she begins connecting with her sisters, Angeline slowly learns to open up and trust others bit by bit. The novel examines how faith, friendship, and love can shape someone's life for the better. Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Net Galley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Beautiful coming of age story about community and how to be a woman/human in today's modern society, even after losing everything.

Anna Quinn has written this book with a nice sensitivity to reach women of every age and to help understand the feelings of family of any sort.

This is a story of family, the kind of are born into and the kind we make.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This is such an original story - and I loved the bits of magical realism infused in this one.

Sister Angeline (Meg) finds out that she must leave the very controlled and traditional abbey she has been at for years when the funding is cut. She is told that she will be sent to the Pacific Northwest, to Light of the Sea, a progressive cloister of nuns. She is upset and worried to say the least. She finds extreme comfort in the routine, quiet and meager life she has been living, yet she has no choice but to go.

Once she gets to her new station, she is overwhelmed by the sounds of chatter and laughter, and the lackadaisical rules - which are opposite of what she is used to. She feels undone. She has been hiding from her thoughts and feelings through the very strict convent she lived in for so long. Now that she has moved on physically, she finds it much more difficult to move on emotionally. She begins to find her footing, and is able to interact with the outside world and find enjoyment in simple pleasures again. A specialness to her that she worried had left her, resurfaces in a magical way.

There is much more to this story, but I think the less you expect, the better. This story is not shoving religion down your throat - in fact, it examines the different ways that people experience and express their faith. I loved the woman who made up Light of the Sea and I think you will too. Each character was individual and I loved the way the author told each of their stories and journeys to this cloister little by little.

This is a story about loss, grief, faith, guilt, love, redemption and acceptance. A thoughtful story - heavy subjects underneath it all, but well dispersed with levity and happiness. A story with heart and soul. My only disappointment with this one was the ending. I felt like it tried too hard to make everything wrap up in a neat little bow.

Definitely still recommend. Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC to read and review. Pub date: 2.07.23

Many thanks to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing and the author for gifting me both a digital and electronic ARC of the gorgeous new novel by Anna Quinn - 5 stars!

When Meg was a teenager, she was the only survivor of a car accident that killed her entire family. Devastated by grief and guilt, she joined a cloistered convent hoping to alleviate both by silence and prayer, becoming Sister Angeline. When the Chicago Diocese closes the convent due to lack of funds, she is sent to a progressive community on an island off the coast of Washington. Sister Angeline struggles with the radical differences from her former life but slowly begins opening up to a new life.

I devoured this book and loved Quinn's beautiful, poetic writing. As a Catholic, I loved reading about the prayers and rituals that are so much a part of the faith. I'll think about Sister Angeline's prayer - "Whatever awaits outside this door, give me courage to face it with strength and love and calm." It's a story of coping with grief and trauma, moving forward again through the help of community. These women were so strong in standing up for each other and their beliefs. I also loved the mysticism in Angeline's gift and how she viewed the light of God. The writing is just so beautiful - every line is perfection. A must read!

Angeline is an absorbing and memorable character and novel. I found myself quite touched by both.

Meg/Angeline lost her entire family in a tragedy while in her teens. After staying a short while with her aunt, at age 16, she enters a cloistered convent where the twenty nuns live in complete silence except for one hour a day and when chanting. It is the perfect place for Angeline to hide from both herself and the world as she struggles to atone for her mistakes and sins.

At 24, her convent the Daughters of Mercy in Chicago, runs out of money, and Angeline is sent to Light of the Sea on Beckett Island in the Pacific Northwest. There, a group of five radical Sisters have started their own community and no longer follow canonical law. The Sisters dress in regular clothes, interact with others, and strive to live peacefully, serving all, and giving voice to the disenfranchised.

For Angeline, who has not spoken or interacted with anyone for eight years, entering their world is akin to being thrown into ice water. She has so much to learn and think about! As she feels more comfortable with the Sisters and community, she begins to come into her own, and readers learn what brought each of the women to Light of the Sea. The island community had been very welcoming and accepting of the Sisters until a new priest was assigned to the local parish. He brings conflict and drama.

This character-driven novel is a coming of age story for Angeline, and shows that the past chapters of our lives do not have to define our current or future seasons. Love, forgiveness, and redemption are available to us all if we allow ourselves to be open and vulnerable enough to receive them.

An enchanting and heartwarming read, the pages fly all too quickly. I am so glad I read this book, and recommend it to you highly.

My thanks to Blackstone Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this book via NetGalley. The book is scheduled to be published on 2/7/23. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

This book made me feel like there’s so many emotions through while reading. She took the name Sister Angeline as a nun. Meg was her name before. Before becoming a nun, she lost family members. As Angeline, she moves from a convent in Chicago to an island where she meets some amazing people. They also have to go through some tough times in the past.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in order for a review.

Angeline by Anna Quinn was a wholly original story about a group of non-traditional nuns helping each other heal from the trauma and grief they each have in their past. What made the story original was that it didn't really fit a genre; I see it is classified as literary fiction and women's fiction, but those are quite broad terms. 

Sister Angeline's real name is Meg, and she enters a cloistered convent to atone for what she perceives as sins from her past. She is trying to deal with her guilt stemming from a car accident that killed the rest of her family when she was a teenager. A few years later, the convent is closed due to lack of funds, and Sister Angeline is sent from her silent convent to a radical convent in the Pacific Northwest on a remote island where five modern nuns shun canonical law and practice their own form of prayer and religion. Obviously, this is a culture shock for Sister Angeline, who had been used to 23 hours of silence each day. As she comes to know and trust the other women, we see them helping one another heal from their damaged backgrounds. There is conflict in the form of unsupportive islanders, a bad sheriff and a "traditional" priest who are not in favor of the Light of the Sea's practices.

I found myself identifying with and cheering for these women. I'd love to visit this fictional place! The story is told with a compelling pace and strong characterization. Sister Angeline evolves to just Angeline and grows and changes in ways that make sense based on the arc of the story.

I will recommend this to readers who like stories of strong women supporting each other.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: February 7, 2023
Anna Quinn’s newest novel about tragedy, community and redemption, “Angeline”, is very much unlike her previous novel, “The Night Child” but then again, it is unlike any other novel I’ve ever read. Surprisingly, “Angeline” is the second novel about nuns and cloistered convents that I’ve read within the last few months, which is a very unusual coincidence, but it seems that eccentric, rejected nuns with attitude are here to stay (and I’m all for it)!
After suffering the tragic loss of her entire family in an accident, Angeline is desperate to find faith, hope and redemption, turning to the church in hopes that becoming a nun will bring her the solace she seeks. But when her extremely religious, cloistered convent is shut down by the diocese, she is sent to “The Light of the Sea”, an extremely small and modern convent in the Pacific Northwest. Angeline begins to question her placement at “Light of the Sea”, when she meets the five other women who reside there, women who refuse to identify themselves as “Sisters” and have, in fact, been ex-communicated by the Catholic church. Surrounded by this group of Holy misfits, Angeline unveils a power in her that has been dormant for years and finally receives the acceptance and redemption she has been looking for.
“Angeline” is a compassionate, unique piece of writing by Quinn, exploring religion and personal growth after a tragic loss. That being said, Quinn’s novel almost spits in the face of modern religion (especially the hypocrisy of Catholicism) and ushers in a new belief system, where everyone is accepted. The “religion” practiced by “Light of the Sea” is definitely something I could get behind! Somehow, Quinn manages to write a novel about a nun and her community, without making its sole focus on organized religion.
The novel is told in third person, but its structure takes some getting used to (Quinn purposely avoids linking verbs and conjunctions in a lot of situations), although the plot still flows well. Angeline is a powerful protagonist, humble and human, and the nuns of “Light of the Sea” are hysterically honest and full of the rallying power that will have readers rooting for them from the first introduction!
Angeline’s story is heartbreaking, and as she comes into her “power”, a little bit of magic is sprinkled into the storyline. Quinn’s storytelling is unique and emotional, and “Angeline” provides the heart-wrenching and uplifting read I did not quite expect!

I loved this book. It was totally unexpected and I was so emotionally invested. Watching Angeline grow as she joins the Light of the Sea convent and connect with the other women there was beautiful. There is also a mystery to this novel but it’s more so a character study of Angeline as she grows to understand herself and society better. Loved it and highly recommend!

I loved this novel. It has fear, heart, hope, friendship and is mixed with a bit of mysticism to keep you guessing.
A young woman becomes a nun. She fights to keep her feelings, previous life and secrets hidden, but eventually "the past" will need to show itself..
I worked in a convent and this is very well done, intense and OH so True!
There are always secrets that are buried within the walls of a convent and this story depicts the cloistered world, and the more progressive convent so perfectly, that I wondered if the author was also a sister at one time. It is that well done!
The journey of Angeline will fill readers with hope, anger and yet a wonderful awakening to these women and their lives and loves.
Loved it!

Thank you to #NetGalley and to #Blackstone Publishing for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.

This is one of the loveliest books I've read, even though my heart was in my throat for most of it! Young nun, Sister Angeline (Meg) is sent to a new "convent" called Light of the Sea on an island far from her familiar environment. Emotionally tortured as a young girl, she witnessed three miracles but her family was killed in an unfortunate accident and it haunts her daily. Now in a new and less-restrictive environment, she is still consumed by rage because of her past, but as she meets the new women who all have their own "issues," she gradually comes to terms with her own shortcomings as well as her strengths. Quinn speaks to many relevant issues: bullying, forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption. I may have shed more than a tear or two but what a wonderful way to start my year!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the copy of Angeline. I have always been attracted to stories featuring nuns and read In This House Of Brede so often over the years my copy just fell apart, so I was excited to read Angeline. What a unique, strange, and unexpected story. I wasn’t expecting her healing power to be such a big part of the plot, or the police investigation that happened. The writing was hypnotic, so lyrical and poetic I would have been intrigued by the book even if the story hadn’t been so compelling. Angeline is a wonderful character and I loved how much she cared about everyone, even when she was keeping her distance. The other nuns were a little quirky and interesting, but I didn’t feel like I got to really know them very well. The only thing I didn’t like was that the epilogue was like something you would see in a movie, so it didn’t work very well for reading.

Sister Angeline is sent to a drastically new environment when her cloistered convent is dissolved. She needs to resolve her feelings about the tragedy that brought her to the cloister when was sixteen, adapt to this new and drastically different situation, and in general find her place in the world.

This is a Stunning book! Excellent setting, characters and story. Complex and lovely in dealing with loss and grief and a new home and "family" and importantly following your heart. I loved it and highly recommend it. You won't put it down.

You'd think a novel set in a cloistered convent populated by nuns following vows of silence would a sleeper. Guess again. Anna Quinn’s Angeline blasts that notion out of the water.
Teenaged Meg is the only survivor of an automobile accident that kills her entire family. Stricken with guilt, she joins a cloistered convent to pray for the suffering of others—and hopefully obliterate her self. She takes the name Sister Angeline and spends her days in silence and prayer. The Archdiocese of Chicago closes the convent due to lack of funds. Angeline is thrust into a new life when she's assigned to a radical convent in the Pacific Northwest run by feminists. They break every rule Angeline has spent years internalizing, and she struggles to adapt. When her new home is threatened, she musters the strength to fight back, to relinquish her fear and grief, to open herself to new places, new people, new freedoms.
I like Anna Quinn’s writing. Her prose is near-poetic as she explores how our past lives affect our current states, how we reform, recuperate, and grow. Angeline is poignant but not teary and combines the mystical with millennia-old beliefs and twenty-first century front page news. This is a truly lovely novel that develops into an exciting thriller.

Anna Quinn writes with a gentle voice for her sweet character, Sister Angeline. Meg lost her family in a car accident when she was a teenager. Feeling boundless grief and loss, Meg joined a private group of nuns and took the name Sister Angeline, spending seven years in silence and prayer. Angeline suffers but finds comfort in her quiet life of worship and work for the church.

News of a necessary change (lack of money closes the convent) throws Angeline into a severe panic. The mother superior decided she would benefit from joining a different kind of nunnery in Washington. The nuns there are not living in silence. They are the opposite of everything Angeline has known for a long time. The young nun's only choice is to follow the new placement or leave the religious life.

Reaching the new group on an island in Washington from her Chicago home is a test of endurance in overcoming severe fear and panic. But the trip is easy compared to what awaits the vulnerable young woman in her new home. Angeline is so well-written and captivating. I'm sure it will win the hearts of everyone who reads it, as it did mine.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Angeline by Anna Quinn is a powerful yet truthful story.

Meg who who is sixteen years old has been through hell and back.
She joins a cloistered convent and then takes the name Sister Angeline.
She is a survivor, she is a lot stronger than I would I be. I couldn't imagine living the life this girl has endured.
Quinn gives a very real and raw insight into Sister Angeline's story.
Her writing is excellent and flows easily throughout the entire novel.
The characters in this book are so well written and developed.
I've never been in this characters shoes before, but honestly I felt so connected to her and her story.
Masterfully written and very intriguing read.
It was definitely hard for me to put down.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Blackstone Publishing,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my blog, platforms, BookBub, B&N, Kobo and Waterstone closer to pub date.