A character driven family drama. Really enjoyed the writing. A big messy family lacking in the communication department.
Enjoyed this one.

Mercury was a beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant novel that stayed with me long after I finished reading. Amy Jo Burns explores themes of grief, healing, and the complexities of family with sensitivity and depth. The characters were richly developed, making their struggles feel authentic and deeply moving. It was a poignant and thought-provoking story that I found both heartbreaking and hopeful.

I’m going to submit my review on NetGalley, but I’m not going to put it on GoodReads because I don’t think it would be fair to the author.

I ended up DNFing this book around the 16% mark after starting and restarting this about 4 times. I’m not sure exactly what it is but I just could not get into this book. There were a lot of names going on at the very beginning and I kept feeling a bit lost. It just didn’t draw me in as much as I thought it would. I don’t blame the author, nor do I think Amy Jo Burns is a bad writer by any means at all, I’m fully blaming myself that I just wasn’t able to get into this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns follows the Josephs, a family of roofers in a small Pennsylvania town. When 17-year-old Marley marries into the family, she finds herself caught between loyalty to her new in-laws and her need to find her own voice.

Overall, I liked the writing style, especially the introspective paragraphs at the end of most chapters. However, I didn’t feel the characters were as fully developed as they could have been, and many of their flaws felt predictable. The pacing was uneven, and I often found it hard to stay engaged or motivated to pick the book back up. It was a decent read, but not one I’d recommend to most people.

I don't know what I thought this was going to be, but I hate romance most of the time. And there was a lot of that.

A character-driven slow burn, this one takes a while to get under your skin, but once it's there it's hard to get out. The small Pennsylvania town setting is vivid and the writing is gorgeous, though the plot meanders at times (like I said, character driven). You'll get emotionally invested in the characters, though, and that carries the story.

Amy Jo Burns' Mercury is a solid read, especially if you're into stories with real people and a strong sense of place.
What really grabbed me was the blue-collar family drama. Burns just nails the complicated, messy, and fiercely loyal bonds of a big, working-class family. The characters feel incredibly authentic – flawed, loving, and totally lived-in. You'll be pulled right into their world, feeling all their triumphs and heartbreaks. It's a beautifully written look at love, legacy, and what actually holds a family together, even when things are falling apart. Definitely pick this one up!

This story was hard to get into and I just didn't find it entertaining. It was hard to want to pick this book up and be engaged with it but I don't think it's a reflection of the authors writing, more of what my preference is for reading.

A family drama novel based around a husband, wife, their 3 sons, and a roofing company, Joseph and Sons Roofing. This story is told through Marley, a 17 year old girl new in town, who gets herself involved with each of the family members.

The story starts off with finding a body in the attic of the church, but who is it and who did it is what the whole story revolves around. After the setting of the novel, the story then goes into the past and gives you the complete picture and builds the book. While there is a bit of a mystery aspect to this book, the book as a whole was slow and kinda boring for my taste.

Thank you to Netgalley, Amy Jo Burns, and the publishers for this free ebook. This review is 100% my own and honest opinion.

Amy Jo Burns crafts a tender and quietly powerful story in Mercury, a novel that pulses with emotional depth and small-town tension. Set in a working-class Pennsylvania town in the 1990s, the book beautifully captures the quiet desperation and deep yearning of its characters—particularly Marley West, a seventeen-year-old girl in search of stability, love, and belonging.

Burns’s prose is lyrical without being overdone, and the slow unraveling of the Joseph family's secrets is both compelling and heartbreaking. Marley’s voice is authentic and sympathetic, and her journey—from outsider to central figure in the Joseph family—feels both intimate and universal. The generational dynamics, her relationship begins with Baylor Joseph, the athlete but, he eventually dumps her, and she turns to a deeper connection with Waylon. They marry and as the matriarch of the family falls victim to dementia, Marley becomes the mother figure.

What keeps this from being a five-star read is the pacing in the middle third, which slows somewhat, and a few supporting characters who feel underdeveloped compared to the vividness of Marley and Waylon. However, the emotional payoff in the final chapters is well worth it, especially when long-buried truths come to light.

Overall, Mercury is a moving, character-driven novel that lingers long after the final page. Burns excels at exploring the quiet corners of family life, love, and loyalty—and the cost of keeping secrets. A worthy read for fans of literary fiction and intimate family dramas. 4 stars .

Amy Jo Burns is a new-to-me author, so I went into this novel without many expectations. I loved the characters - each one deep and developed well. I came to care for many of them. The story was emotional and, at times, raw. Complicated and messy, I didn't want to leave this family. I'm looking forward to Burns's next book!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the opportunity to read this!

I really enjoyed the character dynamics within this novel. I love a story about brothers and this one had some really intricate plot points and descriptions

I really enjoyed this slow burn family drama mystery. The family dynamic was so real and heartbreaking.

I was completely swept up by Mercury. The story follows Marley, a teenager who becomes deeply entangled with the Joseph brothers—a family of roofers with a complicated past. What starts as a love story turns into something deeper: a look at loyalty, identity, and the roles women often assume in families without even realizing it.

Amy Jo Burns’s writing is atmospheric and haunting in the best way. The setting—small-town Pennsylvania in the ’90s—felt gritty and real, and the characters were raw and layered. I loved how the tension slowly built, especially once the mystery element came into play.

This was one of those reads that left me thinking long after I put it down. Quietly intense and beautifully written—I definitely recommend it.

I started this book a few times because I just could not get into it much. I think the writing was good, but the story just was not for me. I think it was a slow burn that never fully got lit.

Compelling family drama filled with flawed characters, small-town tension, and just the right amount of secrets and deception to keeping you hooked!

DNF - I attempted to start this book and it just did not hold my interest. This may be a book I come back to in the future.

This was one of my favorite reads in January and in the year so far. It isn’t any flashy story, It’s a slow burn with deep character development as opposed to action, and that can be hit or miss for me. This one hit it out of the park. You were invested in all the characters, especially Marley, Baylor, Way and Shay. While the church discovery is a mystery to how the family ties it, it does come back and while it isn’t the focus of the story, you see how this discovery shaped the family is so many different ways.
The Joseph family felt real. Their emotions and experiences felt read. The book is beautifully written and really gets the reader connected to the characters and their stories, each one of them. How much this book drew me in was a complete surprise in the best way. I want to know more and what’s next for the whole Joseph family

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns was a captivating read—I genuinely loved it. Burns’ storytelling is beautifully atmospheric and deeply evocative, pulling me completely into the vivid, almost dreamlike world she created. Her characters felt raw, authentic, and unforgettable. The emotional depth and lyrical prose made it hard to put down, and the narrative stayed with me long after finishing. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates immersive, thoughtfully written fiction.

In 1990, seventeen-year-old Marley West arrives in Mercury, Pennsylvania, and is quickly entwined with the troubled Joseph brothers, becoming one’s wife, another’s mother, and the third’s great lost love.

This ARC sat on my Kindle for over a year - I just couldn’t get past the first three chapters, which felt like a disjointed mix of a baseball game, strained family dynamics, and a dead body. But I was tired of seeing it on my TBR, I finally committed this month, and once I did… oh my. I ended up absolutely loving this book. Phenomenal characters, a plot that keeps the pages turning, and most importantly for me, a beautiful and harrowing commentary on what it means to be a mother. I’m really surprised that I didn’t hear more about this book around it’s publication, because it is definitely worth a read! I hope Burns’ other books are similar, because I will certainly be picking them up sometime in the future.

4.5/5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.