I am new to Sullivan, but I am definitely a fan. I thoroughly enjoyed the many stories presented in the Cliffs. The author tackles quite a few heavy topics but does so with a deft hand. It is a long story but never feels cumbersome or too heavy. There are histories that I wish I was able to spend a little more time with, but overall I was very pleased with how everything unfolded. The author’s own connection to Maine was also abundantly apparent. This was a wonderful historical fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

I have read all of this author's books. The first three were excellent, the last one was okay, and this one was just okay as well. Hopefully, her writing is not going downhill. This book would have earned 4 stars from me if large parts of it didn't read like a textbook. It seemed the author wanted to show us just how much research she had done. She also virtue signaled with every opportunity she gave herself. Take that away and we had a good story about interesting characters who happened to have all lived in the same house. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A new favorite Reese Book Club pick for sure! I loved how multi-layered this story was, filled with rich characterization and the stories of strong women who are connected to one Maine, cliff-side house across the ages.

Told from alternating POVs, this story touches on Sapphic love, alcoholism, colonialism, loss and so much more! I loved the multi-cast narration on audio that included some of my favs, Cassandra Campbell and Brittney Pressley, among others.

The main character of the story is Jane, a Harvard archivist whose alcohol addiction causes her to lose both her her job and her husband. As she escapes to her recently deceased mother's house in Maine to prepare it for sale, she finds herself caught up in the past as she researches the lives of the women who lived and died in the cliff house she's admired since she was a child.

Rich in detail and deeply moving, this was a long but so well-written story and I couldn't get enough. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and BookSparks for sending me a beautiful finished copy in exchange for my honest review!

I enjoyed the start of this book but about 40% in it lost me. It became disjointed and read like a lecture. It had a little bit too much storyline that made it so informational that it made you lose interest. A little fine editing and I think I’d enjoyed it more. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

I loved the premise of this book about women growing and learning all revolving around an old house in a beachside community. The characters are complex and nuanced in a way that made me instantly invested. At times the book felt longer than it needed to be but the writing was so solid that I kept turning pages to find out what was going to happen. Heartfelt thanks to the publisher for the copy.

I want to start by saying that J. Courtney Sullivan is one of my favorite authors, and I absolutely love her writing. I have loved most (all?) of her novels, and I did mostly like this one too, but with some caveats. The writing was her typical super strong prose that pulls the reader in and holds you throughout the novel. My issue with this book is that there was just too much going on. A lot of characters, a lot of side plots, new people being introduced really late in the book, it just felt a bit disorganized. I did enjoy it, and ultimately by the end of the novel, things came together pretty nicely, but there were multiple points while reading it that I wanted to give up, as I just couldn't pull all the threads together as I was reading.

Before reading The Cliffs, I listened to an NPR Book of the Day podcast episode where J. Courtney Sullivan was interviewed about the book. She talked about how an inspiration behind the story was how much the time a woman is born impacts her life, and in the end this is one of the central themes of the story. What drew me in was the setting, an abandoned, potentially haunted home on the ocean in Maine. However, the way several women's stories are woven together, all tied to this piece of land, is what really makes it a compelling story.

There is a secondary storyline of the main character's struggles in her marriage and with sobriety, and honestly I think these almost distracted from what was otherwise a great story. There is a point near the end where I assumed a large scale episode was about to happen, and instead it just cut away to two chapters of backstory.

Overall this was a great read, especially if you dream of Maine in the summer like I do.

I really liked this book, it was not at all what I was expecting, I guess more of a ghost story. And yes, it had ghosts but it was also a deep dive through the indigenous people and cultures of Maine, which I had never learned about, I found it very fascinating.

This is another great book from J. Courtney Sullivan that ties in the author's usual themes of family, history, and a coastal setting. I liked that this is a beach/summer read and release with a more "gothic" feel, especially with the mystery of the old house. If you are new to this author but like the books of Kate Morton, this would be a good title to start with!

A long abandoned house is the through line in this novel. Jane, the protagonist is obsessed with this house as a teenager in a dysfunctional family. Her research into the house as an adult allow us to see the rich history of the house and the land before it. The novel reveals many different historical themes through the history of the house. I felt it was a little disjointed as I was reading but, I liked how it was all tied up and the end and how they were all really related after all.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this one. Unfortunately, I didn't think it lived up to it.

Jane was very taken with an old house near her home when she was a teenager. Now many years later she is dismayed to see the so called improvements that have been made to it by the new owner.

I liked the history of the house and it's owners along with many other aspects of the story. I just felt like some parts dragged on a little too long and the book lost its momentum several times throughout.

Not a bad book, but not a great one either.

Thanks to netgalley and Knopf for the arc.

Jane returns home to Maine after making a disastrous mistake at her job and ends up helping the new owner of the house she loved as a teenager find out more about the house's history. Jane discovers more about the previous owners of the house as well as how one part of it intersects with her own family's history. Overall, a story about family history as well as place history, as part of the book focuses on the Indigenous people of Maine and on repatriation. It was a bit hard to follow at times with a huge cast of characters and the multiple side plots and Jane's avoidance of her alcoholism was difficult to read. Recommended to readers who like history and family mysteries.

Absolutely loved this book and would recommend as a perfect summer beach read. Loved the characters, the dual timeline, and the house was the best part of the story and how it changed over time.

I loved all the history included in the book. I loved the history of the people who lived in the house that was the focal point of the story.
There were some appalling things that went on in the book that were hard to digest involving the cemetery and a pool.
I found it difficult to relate to Jane and I didn’t really care for her.

This is a slow-burn novel about a house in Maine and its occupants over centuries. There is a LOT going on here, including ghosts, spiritualism, family trauma, and more. We spend most of our time with Jane, our flawed protagonist from the present-day timeline, but there are some interludes where we hear from other characters. A little busy with a neatly wrapped up ending, a pleasant summer read that will transport you to Maine.

I enjoyed the ghost story and the gothic elements the author used in this book. I didn't enjoy all the extra story lines and info dumping. It easily could have been a hundred pages less if it had more show and less tell. I did a lot of skimming.
Thank you Netgalley for the review copy.

This is a history buffs love letter in fiction to a fictional town. If you love old history of houses, Indians, that sort of thing, you'll love this book.

I loved the multiple layers and time jumps of this book. It’s so interesting to view the same location through so many different lenses. 4 stars because some parts of the book felt slower and it took me longer than I normally do to get back into it

The scenic description drew me right in - an abandoned home overlooking a seaside cliff. Who lived there? What secrets did they hold?

To answer these questions, the author goes through several POVs and time periods which can be tricky to keep track of.

It starts with a mysterious element with intertwining family drama before taking a hard historical shift to draw in commentary on who the land belongs to.

While I found this exploration of Native ownership interesting and important, it felt jarring and drawn out as it was positioned in this part of the novel. However, right after that, it gets juicy with interweaving stories and scandals simmering throughout.

I thought it would take a more mystical turn, but every time it looked like it was tip-toeing in that direction, the story quickly retreated.

Ultimately, it’s a story about home (I’m kind of surprised the title didn’t follow suit) and what that means for a single, special place occupied by so many.

Jane (an archivist) returns to her mother’s home in Maine after a drunken night destroys her career and marriage. She is finally clearing out her mother’s home to sell it and figure out her next steps in life. The old abandoned home on the cliffs (that she was obsessed with as a teenager) has a new owner who is renovating it and wants to know more about its history and hires Jane to investigate. As Jane investigates, the novel is infused with Jane’s backstory and those who have histories connected to the land and to the home. Along with her best friend Allison, Jane not only unearths the story of the house, but also finds a new path forward in healing herself.

I enjoyed the overall story to this one. I did feel like the very long chapters of the backstories of the land and some side characters broke up the flow of the story. Some of them were very dense with factual history that felt a bit like a slog. While I appreciated the well researched historical record (especially as it relates to the original Indigenous population) it felt a bit overkill and disjointed in this book.

Thank you to @aaknopf @pantheonbooks @vintageanchorbooks @netgalley for a digital review copy of this new release