A Town Called Solace

Author: Mary Lawson

Who Picked the Book: Rachel

One-sentence summary: A girl with a missing sister, a man recently divorced, and a woman about to die converge in a small, Northern Canadian town in unexpected ways. 

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7

Our favorite thing about it: This was an easy to read, engaging story.

Our least favorite thing about it: The pacing was off and the ending felt both rushed and abrupt. 

Main Topics of Discussion: Parenting, Starting Over, Dying, Love, Responsibility, Childhood

Our favorite quote: "Adults in general were less reliable than they should be, in Clara’s opinion."

Notes: This story held our attention while reading. It seemed short to us - especially since the ending came fast and ended the book quickly. The rest of the book took a leisurely look at these characters, their lives, and how their stories converged. There was a heavy theme of "bad" parenting - telling lies to kids to keep them from painful truths, ignoring or not even trying to relate to your child, and emotional neglect. We wondered if Elizabeth was a completely reliable narrator about her past with Liam. Was she telling the whole truth about his parents/mother? Or was she seeing what she wanted to see in order to take him in as her own? During our discussion, it was brought up that Elizabeth's storyline played into some not-so-nice tropes about infertile women. And while it did make for a good story, that's definitely true. Although none of us really picked up on that while reading. We all thought Liam's relationship with the handyman was a nice piece of small-town life and also a welcome addition to the story. Overall, we liked this short, but interesting story and enjoyed reading it. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: We were caught in a BIG storm while enjoying our hot chocolate and crepes at Sweet Paris! We waited out the rain and got back to Rachel's house relatively dry. We were supposed to swim earlier in the day, but the storm looked like it was going to come earlier and cancelled that part of our fun. 

What We Ate: Rachel took us to Petra Mexican Restaurant for enchiladas, tacos, guac, queso and margaritas. Then, we went to Sweet Paris for crepes and hot chocolate.