I enjoyed this debut. While it took me a minute to get used to the writing style, I was interested in the premise and enjoyed the story overall. I would read more from this author.

The synopsis is intriguing however the book itself is disappointing in every way possible. Save your time and money.

I really enjoyed this story, told from the perspectives of a mother, Jude, and her twins, Virginia and Evan.

Given the blurb, I was expecting a desolate narrative. And while it had that, it was also very lyrical and poignant. Jude displays both a sense of optimism and desperation. Virginia is being forced to grow up quickly. Evan still has that whimsical childlike wonder.

Over the course of the three days, various additional characters are introduced. Everything builds towards a tragic outcome, but goodness and hope also shine through the interactions with the three Woods.

A beautiful story of family and community that I would recommend, especially now, when morale and spirits are down.

Crown, which walks the border between novel and novel-in-verse, is a deeply emotional portrayal of the people that live on the outskirts of society – unhoused, food insecure, and unable to qualify for assistance. It’s easy to pass judgment on someone such as Jude, who at 25 is pregnant with her third fatherless child – the first two being 10-year old twins. But her deep love and emotional connection with her children will resonate with every parent as she desperately tries to find them help and security. The peak (or, to put it better, the deepest valley) comes from a small, thoughtless comment by a random passerby – and at that moment the reader realizes how deeply they have become connected to this family. Their love, their creativity, their resilience, their kindness.

Deeply emotional and exhausting, this exploration of community and the unhoused is a beautiful ode to the goodness that lives inside people.

I really wanted to love this book and kept waiting for more, but it just didn’t happen. The book is pretty short and if longer, I think the story could have been developed more and turned into a more interesting read.

'Men, money, these things fall from my hands but not children, no; children I can hold'.

Jude is a heavily pregnant, single mother living in a trailer park with her twins, but not for long. Having lost her waitressing job during COVID, she is now about to be locked out of her home with nowhere to go. Over the 3 days the family have left, the reader gets a glimpse into their lives, their neighbours and community. Life is pretty bleak, people are damaged, and although hope is not something present daily, there is a sense of love and care in the community. Problems will not disappear simply because a baby is about to be born however, with every cause there is an effect and just maybe there's hope after all.

'Crown' is told across three POVs. Some chapters are simply a sentence or two. It’s hopeless but it’s hopeful. It’s bleak but beautiful. It's the dark twin and the light twin. It’s lyrical. It's a mood read that will reward readers with its depth of emotion and poetry.

'I hate sleeping. Why? Makes you forget. Then you got to wake up in the morning and the bad has got to happen all over again'.

I was hopeful going into The Crown, as the premise held promise, but ultimately, the book didn’t work for me. The storyline was difficult to follow, jumping between past and present in a way that felt disjointed and confusing. While the lyrical writing style may appeal to some readers, I found that it lacked flow and clarity. The absence of quotation marks in dialogue further added to the confusion and disrupted the reading experience.

Jude, the central character, is clearly dealing with trauma, but her development felt lacking. Because of this, I struggled to connect with her and found myself feeling detached from her journey. There was a meaningful story beneath the surface, but the execution fell short for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction

Crown is the debut novel of Evanthia Bromiley, and it follows the story of Jude, a pregnant single mother of 9-year-old twins, Evan and Virginia. This small family is facing an eviction from their trailer park home. It is a story of hardship and struggle.

Without getting into the details, this tale is very relevant in today’s world. This family experiences many difficulties, be it the cut-off of the electricity, the risk of the children being taken away from the mother, or the complications of a pregnancy. All these challenges occur simultaneously.

The writing style is beautiful and has emotional depth to it, despite the book not being a long one. The author concentrates on many themes like poverty, resilience, motherhood, and struggle. What I appreciate about this story is that it sheds light on the lives of marginalized communities in the United States. This is something that not many books do.

Yes, there will be moments that you, as a reader, will feel tense due to the theme, which involves dealing with trauma and child endangerment, but we have to remember this is not fantasy, and whatever happened to this family is also happening to real people, if not worse.

The story is narrated from multiple perspectives, which helps us understand the emotional states of the characters. Though short, this book is hard to read because of its subject, but it is vital for understanding others' struggles.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

Crown is a beautifully layered story about identity, resilience, and finding strength in unexpected places. The writing is thoughtful and poetic, with characters that felt deeply real and emotionally grounded. As the main character navigates personal loss and reinvention, the themes of self-worth and empowerment really shine through. The format was different, but maybe that was intentional .

Evanthia Bromiley has a gift for capturing quiet emotional moments with impact. This story felt both tender and powerful, and it stayed with me after I finished.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this moving novel.

As a debut novel, the premise is interesting, but I just couldn’t get into the way it is written with short sentences, lack of quotation marks and even upper case letters. I understand that it’s supposed to be more poetic than most novels, but I struggled with that.

The story does try to find the beauty in small things, told through the distinctive voices of a mother and her children. Even while in crisis, each of them can lean on each other for support and take life as it comes.

The story is good but the writing bothered me. I struggled at times trying to figure out who was talking and who they were talking to. I give this book 3 stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the eARC

The “Crown” is a poetic novel about poverty and family bonding. This is the author’s debut novel! This was written in three point of views, the Mom and her two children. This book is about a pregnant Mother and her twins getting evicted from their home and need a place to live. When Covid hits, it changes their lives drastically. The pregnant mother and her twins end up living in a car, which is sad and heartbreaking.

While all of this is going on, they begin imagining what it would be like to feel safe, secure and not having to worry about anything. This is where the family really comes together and bonds, despite their horrible circumstances. I really enjoyed the poetic writing, it was unique. Even though I found this to be a reasonable read, I feel like my only critique would be that the children’s struggles were not explored enough. This was a fast paced, suspenseful read. I felt like it left with a cliffhanger, so I am wondering if another book is in the works. Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars rating.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Evanthia Bromiley and Grove Atlantic | Grove Press for this digital advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is set to be published on June 17, 2025!

In this poignant tale, Jude, a pregnant mother of twins, faces the daunting prospect of eviction with no clear path forward. Rather than delving into the despair of poverty, the story finds grace in the quiet moments of hope and resilience. Despite the challenges, the narrative is unexpectedly uplifting, with a lyrical tone that contrasts the dire circumstances. Told through shifting perspectives the story offers a unique view of their world, though the rapid transitions between voices can be disorienting. The lack of punctuation made the dialogue challenging to follow, but it also added to the book’s raw, intimate feel. A delicate balance of beauty and hardship, this book captures the fragility of dreams in the face of uncertainty.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC I read in exchange for my honest review.

Hard, visceral, difficult.

I wanted to love Crown, but….

Without a doubt this short novel is well written, told from 3 POV Jude mother of 9 year old twins, about to give birth and suddenly homeless. It felt like vignettes of beautiful settings, interesting characters but the narrative arc didn’t hold my attention.

Rounded up to 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tried many times to read, but the formatting was so horrible that it was impossible. Page breaks happened at random, the author's name randomly showed up in what I think should have been a header. There was no format for the line breaks, making interpreting the lyrical nature of the text impossible to decipher. I'm disappointed because I was excited for this book;

Beautiful, heartbreaking and written in verse. I just wish it had a bit more nuance to it. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review

The Crown is an okay read, though it didn’t completely captivate me. Jude, a woman facing overwhelming challenges—pregnancy, job loss, and eviction—fights to keep her family intact. With no place to call home, she sends her twins to hide in a field while she goes into labor, hoping to protect them from child services. The story spans three intense days, told in lyrical prose. While the premise had potential, I didn’t feel fully drawn into the characters’ struggles. The writing was poetic, but it didn’t quite connect with me on a deeper level.

This story completely sucked me in. It centers around Jude, who is pregnant with her third baby, and her twins: Evan and Virginia. And it takes place during the four days after the family receives an eviction notice.

I loved that we are given POVs for the 3 main characters, it felt like you were living this experience with the family. Jude is currently unemployed due to the pandemic and trying to figure out what to do when the world is closing in on her. The way that the author was able to convey the restlessness of all the members of the family in such beautiful language made me not want to put this one down.

Loved!

This is a powerful story about the heartbreak of living with nothing. The determination of all the characters showed hard work, and loving even harder.

well written story with a bunch of short segmented portions. well written in general but motivations seem a bit holow at points. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

Crown is a moving story that explores a 3 way multi POV of two children and their pregnant mother, 3 days before they are to be evicted from their trailer park. This novel explores classism and the struggles that come with poverty through the eyes of two young twins Evan and Virginia, and their mother Jude.

While the concept was unique, there was something missing in connecting to the characters. The writing style is a disjointed and poetic one, with no punctuation for speech, similar to James Frey. This can be tough for some folks to follow. For me, it was a neat read.

I had deep empathy for what the characters endured, but felt themes like anger and unfairness could have been explored farther, to make them fully realized. If you are looking to explore writing styles, I'd still read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.