When I first saw 'Mercury', the cover caught my eye and the synopsis of the book sounded good. That being said, I was not prepared to be totally blown away by Amy Jo Burns' novel. I love the Joseph family as their story is typical of families everywhere. It is balm to my soul to read just such a story about the real nitty and gritty of everyday life that we all experience and grapple with. The dynamics between each of the six Joseph family members are fascinating and, just as in real life, relationships are rarely what they seem on the surface. The male Joseph family members are trying to provide for the family and support each other as they think they should and in the case of Shay are trying to figure out where they belong in the big picture. Elise and Marley are struggling to maintain an iota of self as they give of their very soul to the concept of their family. I was surprised in the end to find out that everybody's secrets were just that - everybody's. I give this book five stars and highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley, BookishFirst and Celadon books for getting an ARC in my hands.

I loved this character-driven story and found it to be a compulsive and compelling read. The characters were written with such depth and relatability making them feel familiar. The mystery elements made it hard to put down too! All around an amazing book and will definitely be reading more from this author!

With small town charm and family drama, Mercury takes the reader into the lives of the Joseph family. They're a family or roofers. As a teenager, Marley and her mother move into the small town of Mercury. She befriends and falls for the oldest son Baylor. Soon, she falls for the middle son Waylon and becomes a mother figure to the baby of the family, Shay. As the story unfolds, secrets are revealed, and events take place that tear the family apart before putting it back together.
The story could be dramatic at times, but overall, I enjoyed the small town feel and the characters.

I loved this literary fiction book so much! It was heavily character-driven, but unputdownable at the same time. Normally character-driven books are a bit sluggish for me and while I enjoy them, they aren't quick reads necessarily. This one was the exception! I flew through this story and found myself not wanting to read anything else. I loved the complicated Joseph family and of course, Marley. I highly recommend!

This is an intense family drama that will stay with you after you finish, Marley is the new girl in town and she connects with the dysfunctional Joseph family and found a seat at their dinner table. As this family struggles to keep their relationships and business together, Marley finds herself becoming entangled in their lives.

This book is full of family drama, secrets, complex relationships, tragedy, mental health challenges, love, sacrifices, perseverance and loyalty. This is the first book I have read by this author and I look forward to reading her backlist,

Thank you Celadon Books, Amy Jo Burns and NetGalley for the gifted eArc. Add this book to your TBR if it isn’t already on it! I gave this book 5 stars!

DNF @32%

I usually like family dramas, so I thought I'd love this. But the pacing was off and I didn't really care about much of what was happening.

Amy Jo Burns put her whole heart into this novel and it is evident from page 1. I loved the character development, the close storytelling and the writing. I thought it could have been edited down a bit and did feel it lagged in the middle for about 20-30 pages, but other than that, I really enjoyed spending time with this messy family.

3 stars .....as it was a slow burn with deep rooted family drama that I don't think I was ready for.

It's rare that Celadon provides a physical copy, and eArc and Audiobook for a book that doesn't capture my interest right off the bat. It may have been a miss for me, but if you are a fan of dysfunctional family drama and a very character driven story - then this book is for you!

Thank you to Amy Jo Burns, Celadon, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with a physical copy, and eArc and an audiobook version of this publication. In return, I have promised to provide an unbiased review.

The premise to this one is right up my alley! I loved most of this story but one part that constantly annoyed me was Marley’s obsession with her in-laws. I totally understand the need to feel like you belong but her obsession with her mother-in-law is down right weird? The need for her constant approval, that she never gives, and how Marley seems like she admires her but also doesn’t respect her for the way she says to be a member of the family, you need to be silent. She claims to do everything for her family and doesn’t have them even acknowledge it. It’s confusing and truthfully, her mother-in-law doesn’t sound like she’d be easy to contend with.

All the characters are very woe-is-me, thinking they have the hardest life of all. One sentence talking about the mom says “Elise had carted him (Shay; the youngest son) everywhere - he, the shopping bag she had to set down to deal with her two oldest sons. It had worn her out, raising them, and Shay had paid the price.” 🙄🙄🙄

The author seems to almost martyr the mother and calls her “selfless” but when in reality that isn’t seen throughout the book, she isn’t a good woman at all. She pits family members against each other by bringing out their faults and raising said faults to each other instead of bringing them together and bringing out the best in each family member.

Past the 80 percent mark, told mainly from Baylor’s (the eldest son) POV, I really enjoyed it. It was almost heartbreaking from his perspective. And then beyond that, to the end I felt like the book had emotion and heart like I wanted the whole book to have from the start.

I know it doesn’t seem like I enjoyed this book, but I did. It felt very real, and it’s a book that you can totally picture in your mind as you read. It’s just very easy to nitpick Mercury but truth be told, that doesn’t mean I won’t still be thinking about this book for a long time.

“A whole person loves well.”

This book took me by surprise. I knew nothing about it before reading and I hadn’t really seen any reviews for it (mainly just book features), so I took that as a bad sign. I went into it expecting to not enjoy it, but oh my goodness, I couldn’t put it down.

First of all, this book is sad. So, so sad. There are so many heartbreaking moments that take place throughout, and my soul just ached for every character.

That was another thing. The characters were brilliantly written and I felt so connected to all of them. Marley and Elise, the Joseph brothers, Mick, even Jade. There was so much depth to all of them. They all had their flaws, but each of them had these beautiful qualities that were just dying to come out. They all frustrated me but I also loved each of them in a different way.

Also, the writing itself was honestly poetic. It was such an enjoyable reading experience.

I think that’s all I really have to say about this one. I know it may not be for everyone, but I highly recommend this coming-of-age story about a young girl who falls in love with the Joseph family and the trials that they face together.

Thank you to Celadon Books for my gifted copy!

I absolutely LOVED #mercurybooks book. This incredible story comes out in January - definitely preorder it now. The family dynamics were incredible - so dysfunctional and flawed, but written perfectly. The characters had more issues than I can count, yet they were also self aware. I loved how we got different perspectives of this story, making it easier to love and hate different characters at different times. The ending left me disappointed, not because I disliked it but because I did not want it to end. I want to know more about the family, their story and future generations. The story started slow, but became one that I could not put down. I strongly recommend this to all.
A story about 3 brothers, their family roofing business and the secrets, lies and love that bind them. Their father Mick has scars from the war. Their mother Elise is the glue that holds them together. Marley becomes a young mother, when the middle son gets her pregnant and marries her. Marley is the one that got away to the oldest, Baylor. And Shay, the youngest, looks to her as a second mother. They all hold secrets, tell lies, yet love one another in their own way.

thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy

This was a really solid family drama. It had more of a mystery within the plot that kept things moving along at a great pace compared to some other family dramas I have read. I loved the way the characters were introduced at a surface level first, then slowly digging deeper throughout the story until I had developed a strong attachment to the entire family. If you're a fan of complex character driven narratives, definitely give this book a try. It was really a beautiful story with some really deep themes of family, forgiveness and sacrifice.
Read this if you like:
family drama, small towns, character-driven, a bit of suspense

While this one did take me a bit to get into, I did really enjoy it. I loved the family drama, the mystery subplot and the found family theme so much. I also really enjoyed the coming-of-age aspect as well as the strongly written characters. Very enjoyable.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

4.5. utterly dysfunctional family that never actually holds itself together, and this works very well. i just felt at points the writing style was a hair too disconnected? thanks for the arc

"Head on straight, heart on straight." Mercury is a powerful, moving exploration of grief and what it means to be part of a family, whether it's the family you're born into or the family you choose. Full of deeply flawed characters, it will leave you aching and thinking about the most important people in your life, and what you would do to show your love and devotion to them.

When seventeen year old Marley moves to Mercury, PA, she becomes involved with the Joseph brothers. They and their roofing business quickly become her whole world.

This is a great family drama story that gets you so involved with the family and characters. The Joseph brothers are all so different and make the family dynamics drama filled. There were several twists and incidents that I was not expecting. I felt for all the characters, especially Elise, as a fellow mother of boys.

“When it came to allegiances, these men would always choose each other.”

Mercury comes out 1/2.

I loved Shiner by Amy Jo Burns and so I was so excited to read this one. A dysfunctional family drama with a side of mystery sounded so appealing. Burns does a good job of immersing you into the Joseph family and you get to know each of the brothers deeply, secrets and all. Main character Marley is at the center of it all and her relationship with each of the brothers is explored . There were parts of this book that I loved and I love Burns’ writing. The mystery part definitely takes a small role and some of the characters I think acted in inauthentic ways that didn’t seem believable, especially Marley in her marriage. I will continue to read this author but this story didn’t work for me the way that I hoped.

The story of a dysfunctional family with plenty of drama that plays out with the focus on Marley who has moved to Mercury, PA with her mother and is in her senior year of high school. She meets the Joseph brothers and their mom invites her to dinner and tells her she is welcome anytime even if she isn't dating one of her sons. There are 3 sons - Baylor, Waylon and young Shay. Events play out and she is soon married into this family and tries to help her mother-in-law who seems overwhelmed and even a bit lost, her youngest brother-in-law whose parents don't have time for him, and the family roofing business which isn't being run well or making enough money.

Sometimes what you see that you don't like and want to fix turns out what you are headed for full steam ahead and you are soon in over your head. I think Marley felt like this. A compelling story and one I liked a bit more than her first book, Shiner. But you can't help but admire Marley's indomitable spirt.

My thanks to Net Galley and Celadon Books for an advanced copy of this e-book.

An absolutely stunning, character driven drama about the Joseph family who run the roofing business in a small blue collar town and a young girl who moves there and changes the trajectory of their lives. Despite how slowly the plot moves over many years, I never lost interest in where things were going. This is a deeply memorable book with incredible storytelling.

4.5 stars. Mercury is, simply put, the story of a family. But as we all know, families are anything but simple.

Amy Jo Burns' second novel takes us to Mercury, Pennsylvania, home of the Joseph family. When 17-year-old Marley West arrives in Mercury with her mother, she finds herself directly in the path of the Josephs, dating one brother and then marrying the other, and becoming a mother figure to the third. The Joseph brothers, who live with their complicated parents in a great house, become her life, as she finds herself part of a family in ways she's always wanted. But the Josephs have secrets like festering wounds, and when a troubling discovery is made in the church attic years later, they must all decide how steadfast their devotion and loyalty to one another really are.

Luminous and profound, Mercury is a slow-burning character study about flawed people, complex family dynamics, and the damage of unaddressed trauma and unhealed psychological wounds. Burns pillages the psyches of her characters, laying them completely bare for the reader, which makes this a devastating and emotionally resonant read. Burns' characters are as frustrating as they are sympathetic, because we want them to make better, healthier choices.

At the center of the story is Marley herself, caught in the whirlwind of the Josephs and not always doing the right thing herself, but who anchors the family all the same, with all-encompassing, sacrificial love. And it's the story of Elise, her mother-in-law, a woman doing her best with what she has been given -- even if her version of love can only be prickly and resigned at best, neglectful at worst.

I really enjoyed Burns' first novel, Shiner, and with Mercury she is cementing herself as a writer of heartfelt, incisive family dramas -- stories that on the surface seem simple, but are told with such moving complexity. Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the early reading opportunity.