Hestia Strikes a Match approaches contemporary fiction and romance from an interesting vantage point, set during the Second Civil War with clear connections to the current political landscape. It was the choice of backdrop that didn't work for me as a reader. While there was wit in the pitfalls of online dating during a Civil War, I was distracted by the backdrop. I had more questions than this book set out to answer about the world of the novel. While certainly the search for love does not stop in the midst of war, this war felt so removed, creating hurdles for the characters but without the heft that even the current political landscape holds. This is likely the case that I was not the right reader for this book, one who was not quite ready for this world that feels quite plausible to be written with such levity. I did enjoy some of the choices Grillo makes including the use of the oral history, and the characters were well written. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for the early e-copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux Publishing for allowing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to like this book and the premise was very promising. However, something made this book fall flat.

See a world where America turns to civil war yet again is scarily not such a radical idea as it may seem and Hestia our main character lives with this new life like it’s normal. And it is the new norm.

Grillo does a good job of weaving the politics of this new world with feel good romance into this book, illustrating how Hestia is developing as the world around her falls apart.

This book was not completely my cup of tea however, and dragged on too much without reaching much of its point. Excited to see where this author goes next.

For this I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Grillo makes a surprising success of melding politics, romance, death and philosophy in this long, funny, engrossing novel. Hestia’s company rarely bores, meanwhile her life dilemmas are both mundane and relatable. An appealing and successful contribution.

In the alternate universe of Christine Grillo’s “Hestia Strikes a Match,” America is in the middle of its second civil war, between the Union and the New Confederated States of America. In Hestia Harris’ Baltimore neighborhood—like many others—terrorist attacks of various sizes are regular occurrences, nightly curfews are set, and it’s best to check your Conflicted app for news alerts and your Safe Zones app for local disruptions before going outside. In addition to navigating this chaotic, divided, and sometimes violent world, 40-something and newly single Hestia ventures out into the dating landscape (and it’s an understandably complicated one here).

Grillo does an excellent job with the world-building. She believably and intriguingly depicts a city where people are living their normal daily lives, but normalcy now includes checking apps regularly for your safety, gas for your car isn’t a guarantee, and things like Kentucky bourbon and cigarettes are black-market goods because they’re produced across enemy lines. Grillo is great with characterization as well. With a protagonist like Hestia—separated from a husband who has gone off to fight for a Union paramilitary group, somewhat estranged from Confederate-sympathizing parents, semi-retired from freelance writing and now working at a retirement home—it would have been easy to write a story about a depressed, lonely woman struggling in her environment or, worse, a plucky, quirky heroine trying to make the best of her circumstances. But instead, she is complex, flawed yet self-aware, and therefore relatable.

Sometimes Hestia is reclusive and feels sorry for herself, but for the most part, she gets out of her apartment and tries. She goes to work. She develops friendships with her co-workers and the retirement home residents. She dates and makes good and bad romantic decisions (mostly bad). She is a strong and interesting protagonist in a unique, engaging story that balances well between wry observations of gender dynamics, family relationships, and a charged political climate and tender reflections on love, happiness, and humanity.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted on March 17, 2023 to: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5396202693.

Wow. This is an incredibly brave and fascinating and funny and truthful book. The observations about how we Americans live today are painfully accurate. I’m going to recommend it widely as a book that must be read in 2023, but with a caveat: it was a little too nihilistic for me. It left me feeling such despair. This in itself is an achievement, especially in a novel that never once lets up on its brightly optimistic tone. So, yes, it absolutely deserves to be read and discussed and showered with praises and prizes. But it will never be a favorite of mine.

Hestia Strikes a Match is a unique and compulsively readable novel about the title character living in a present-day civil war in the United States. Hestia is a 43 year old divorced woman living in Baltimore and working at a nursing home. Though the backdrop is a new civil war and America has split into two countries based on political beliefs. The red states have seceded to become their own new country following the death of the 46th president, when the female vice president is inaugurated into office.

It seems possibly inspired by the pandemic, how things are very different, though we still persist as if everything is normal. Things may be happening to people we know, but it still feels like our lives are basically the same. The imagined new reality is fascinating to read about and seems possible at times. Hestia is relatable and the humor made me laugh out loud at times. There are beautiful, poetic and philosophical ruminations about life and love sprinkled throughout. The characters, especially Mildred, a resident of the nursing home, are incredibly charming. The story is a little slow as it seems to largely be about Hestia's dating life during a civil war, but I loved the entertaining and relatable writing style.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

How can a book set in an alternate 2023 amid a civil war also be a fun romance? Doesn't seem possible but this author pulls it all off and more. A quick read. I just ripped through the pages. I loved Hesita as she searches for romance but her relationship with her 80 year old bestie is my favorite.

America in an alternative 2023 is amidst a second Civil War. Could there be a better time to be searching for a new partner?

This is where Hestia, a newly single 40-year-old woman finds herself, and the novel charts her dating experiences. Her life is grounded by her job at a retirement village where she meets 80-year-old Mildred, and the pair become fast friends.

The other main relationship in the novel is between Hestia and her parents, who are academics and Confederates and have deeply opposing views on the state the country finds itself in, which in itself brings an even bigger divide to their relationship with their daughter.

Hestia Strikes a Match is a very smart and very readable look at contemporary society (and it has some pretty funny observations to make about dating, too). Highly recommended!

8/10

I really enjoyed this book. It’s creative, it’s funny, it’s tragic… it’s got it all.

I have to be honest, I was surprised. I didn’t think it would be as good.

The book is an exploration of love. As we follow Hestia through a year or two of her life, we see love appear in different forms: parental love, love of a friend, spousal love, love to avoid loneliness, plain old sex/not love, and a variety of other variations.

Hestia is 44 years old. She lives in the United States which is important to say because in the story a bunch of red states have seceded from the union and created their own Confederate country. There’s a new civil war - Americans against the confederates - and it isn’t easy.

There are terrorist activities and fear that at any minute a bomb could go off. Meanwhile, her husband left her to fight in the war, and Hestia has begun to start dating. Each chapter of the book is a different love. Often leading to a different heartbreak.

But again, it’s a very well written book. I liked it a lot and can’t wait to read more from Christine Grillo.

#netgalley #hestiastrikesamatch

Speculative fiction meets romance? Sign me up. An interesting hybrid of the trials and tribulations of modern dating meets the current state of the political divide in America - and a glimpse into a possible not-so-distant future world. There are a lot of ideas being meshed together, along with the questions and answers from Hestia’s oral history project with the seniors at the retirement home where she works. The story was a meandering river, which I enjoyed following, through a small number of long chapters.

There seemed to be a lack of cohesion, and I wondered to myself, “Where are we going with this?” But the story did stop, pieces were interwoven together, and the end result was revelatory, though perhaps more abrupt than I had desired, but it was more than I had anticipated. I think it would be a great book club read (though it’s not going to win over any conservatives).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

You know a book is good when you feel like you've lost a friend after finishing the last page. Even though the narrator didn't have the brightest outlook on life, her humor more than made up for it.

It's 2023, year of a modern American civil war, with the Southern seceding to form their own country. There are bombings of all sorts, and of course all forms of bigotry and name-calling between the two factions. An extremely anxiety-inducing app sends out real-time/batched alerts about dangers in one's neighborhood.

In the midst of the chaos, Hestia jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend, dumping them immediately once things feel too comfortable. She works in a nursing home, encouraging residents to participate in an oral history project that will be shared with their families. The one other conflict in her life involves her parents, whom she calls by their first names. They are former academics who criticize nearly every aspect of Hestia's life. Oh, and their political loyalties (as Confederates) are opposite hers, leading to estrangement.

This was sprinkled with life wisdom from nursing home residents, hilarious romantic entanglements gone wrong, and ultimately the warmth of friendship in the most unexpected moments. The cast of characters was quirky but believable. It was lovely and refreshing—I'd highly recommend.

Hestia Harris uses mainly two apps on her smartphone: one is checking for terrorist threats in the area, and the other is … a dating app. It’s 2023, and the United States is in the middle of a civil war. The country was divided; some states were pro-Union, while others separated and called themselves the New Confederates States of America. Families are divided, life-long friendships are dissolved, and Hestia’s marriage is another casualty of the war.

The description of the background of Christine Grillo’s novel “Hestia Strikes a Match” paints a bleak picture, yet the book is funny, even if it’s often dark humor. Hestia, whose parents named her after a Roman goddess of the family life, and the state order, is 40 years old, very independent, and searching for companionship, perhaps even for love but mainly just trying to enjoy life and navigate the new, scary situation. Her choice of boyfriends is not always right on target, but her description of their personalities is always hilarious. She is a very nurturing person working at a retirement village where she befriends an elderly lady, Mildred. Mildred likes to sneak out to smoke and share her wisdom about life and men. Just as Hestia strikes a match lighting Mildred’s cigarette, she hopes to strike a match on her smartphone dating app.

It’s a novel that can be read on many levels – a dystopian story, a cautionary tale, and a great read with a heroine as lovable as Bridget Jones. I loved it. Easy to read, it is thought-provoking and entertaining at the same time. One can’t escape thinking, “what if something like this happens” looking at the country described in the book. The scenes in the novel bring memories of photos we saw in the newspapers not so long ago, and Hestia is not just trying to live despite the situation; she tries to find her happiness and help others. The musings the elderly residents put in writing are beautiful reminders that life goes on. As Mildred says, when Hestia is heartbroken: “Oh dear, Hestia, you fell in love, it’s not the worst disaster. It’ll pass. (…) It always does. (…) We are very adaptable creatures.”

This is a dystopian novel that looks at the US in the near future. A US that has found it's self in another Civil War. Even though I'm not a fan of Dystopian fiction I did find this one eye opening and thought provoking.

A bleak, hilarious, and thought-provoking novel about the United States falling apart and one woman’s quest to find romance and friendship and pass the time. It is 2023 and the United States is in the midst of a violent civil war. Hestia is 42, living in Maryland, and just wants to find some companionship. Sure the world is pretty much on fire but there is still time for some ill-fated dating.

I adored Hestia - she is charming, kind, self-deprecating, and a wonderful friend. The writing was utterly absorbing and achieves a tricky balance of horrifying scenarios and humor. The story explores a nightmare scenario that somehow doesn’t seem that far-fetched given the current political discourse. This is a fresh, exhilarating read that I highly recommend. What an exciting debut novel.

Thank you very much to @fsgbooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

This book has an interesting concept, but unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. It just didn’t hold my interest enough for me to keep going with it. This was a DNF for me.