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This book revolved around the mid-life crisis of a failed actress who went to Hollywood to pursue an important life, and as it became clear that she wasn't going to experience the level of success that she felt entitled to, she begins obsessing about the small town life she left behind.

As the former Queen Bee of Maddock, her return stirs up all sorts of feelings in the people she left behind, including her parents, best friends, ex-boyfriends and random townspeople.

The local deputy calls it the "dog days of summer" and continues to blame all of the strange happenings on this phenomenon rather than adults in the throes of a mid-life crisis behaving badly.

As I was reading this book, Thoreau's quote "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation....." kept popping into my head. This was an interesting book, and a good read, but the overwhelming mood in the book was yearning and despair. A little too realistic to be a fun beach read, but really hit the thoughts that go through this middle aged mom's head. One character, an infertility specialist, Dr. Ross says, "Because you see, children prevent you from doing anything. They completely occupy your time and attention. You can't address your concerns and desires because you're so wrapped up in the children. And they also provide a very nice reason to think in simplistic terms. How many times have you heard people say, 'I didn't believe in the death penalty until I had children'? They have the right, now, to believe in retribution and bloodletting because it's all wrapped in this sacramental blanket called children. Children make it easier for us to be less questioning., less demanding of ourselves intellectually. Passing out clean hypodermics to drug addicts? Sorry, can't think about it. I've got the children. Poverty, world hunger? Sorry, children. And the more children you've got, the less you have to apply yourself to any other question."

Yikes. I like to read to escape these type of thoughts going through my head, but this book definitely wasn't escapism. Good book, brought out a strong emotional response in it's reader.

I received a free copy of this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

A Better Place came to me from Pat Conroy's publisher (hint hint: naming Pat Conroy in your pitch is a surefire way to get me to review a book!) and, for that reason, I decided to at least read the first chapter and see what I thought. Frankly, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised! It's a quick, easy read that would be great for fans of Southern fiction.

Valerie is one of those Southern belles that owned her tiny town (Maddock, VA) when she was growing up. She's gorgeous, popular with the boys, has more "minions" than actual friends, and always dreamed of moving on to bigger and better things outside of Maddock (kind of like a less slutty Tyra Collette from "Friday Night Lights"). Following her split with her husband, she assumes she's going home to reclaim her former glory...but things don't quite work out that way.

While the overall story is light and somewhat frivolous, the writing is not. Hall offers some wise nuggets on life and deals with broader themes that give the storyline a bit more depth. This is a story of the romanticized notion of "home" and first loves, the power dynamics of friendships, and the incestuous nature of the small-town dating game (I mean, Riggins did date both Lyla and Tyra on "FNL", didn't he?!). But, the biggest theme Hall tackles is, the difference between "people who act and people who don't act", as a minor character in the book puts it. It's a story about taking control of your life or letting it control you:

"No one had ever told him what to do in the absence of someone telling him what to do."

Hall also captured small town life in the South to a tee:

"Valerie disliked urgency; it was one of the things she disliked most about L.A., and one of the reasons she had never really contemplated living in New York. She thought it cast people in a vulgar light, all that hurrying, the frantic chasing of opportunity. People in Maddock were content to let opportunity find them, and if it never came, at least they had spared themselves the indignity of hunting for it."

"Southerners. When in doubt, make coffee. Coffee and iced tea are the solution to any social dilemma."

The characters in A Better Place are all flawed and there isn't really one person I felt myself rooting for. However, it didn't bother me that much because each one serves a purpose in the "life wisdom" themes Hall addresses. Each character represents a different cautionary tale. If you feel more comfortable with books where you like the characters, this may not be the choice for you.

Finally, I grew up in Richmond, so I enjoyed the Virginia setting of A Better Place. The fictional Maddock, VA is located near the NC/VA border and has a military academy. This made me think of the real life Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, VA. There were also numerous references to UVA (my alma mater), University of Richmond (only a few minutes from my childhood home), and Danville (my mother-in-law's hometown). So fellow Virginians, you may enjoy this one!

A Better Place would make a great beach read and is going on my 2014 Summer Reading List.

From time to time, I get invitations from NetGalley to review books, and from time to time I take them up on the offer. After all, free books are never bad.

Anyway, I finished reading this book today, while fighting a migraine, completely convinced it was something I committed to for one of the blog tour sponsors I work with, only to realize it actually wasn’t, which is good, since I’m writing this review at ten pm.

I loved the book! It’s author Barbara Hall’s first foray out of YA and into contemporary adult literature (according to what I read in Publisher’s Weekly, and it’s the perfect novel for a lazy summer’s day. The characters are the kinds of southern women you expect to find in a small town, and their dialogue never felt at all unreal.

Likewise the theme of the novel – the romanticizing of home and youth – is a universal one, and one that I, at an age significantly older than the characters in this novel, am still prone to engage in.

But there’s another theme, one the main character Valerie brings up about a third of the way into the book: Everyone wants their life to have a story.

It was that thought that really made the rest of the novel sing for me, because I think it’s completely true.

Comparisons to Anne Rivers Siddons are actually pretty spot on, in tone if not in detail, and I look forward to more of Halls work in this genre, though I’ve never been opposed to reading YA even though the Y part still applies to me.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was easy to get into and moved along well. The characters were reasonably well developed for a book of fiction, and each had their own unique weakness which contributed to the story very well.

This book centers on a woman leaves her playwright husband in LA and restores to small town southern USA where she grew up and almost married Joe who did marry one of her two best friends. Valerie's appearance in the town causes many ripple effects: Tess and Joe's marriage shows its fragility, Mary Beth's weight rises, parents reveal their own needs and concerns, and even a high school student tries to entice Valerie. All finally accumulate to reveal that one can never go home again; nothing remains the same. Moreover, some of the people realize that they have to grow up and face their fears head on. An interesting and thought-provoking story.

Highly recommended.