Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for “a reliable wife.” But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she’s not the “simple, honest woman” that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man’s devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt a passionate man with his own dark secrets has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.
My Review: 4 stars
This is an incredible story with a gothic approach. There is plenty of deceit peppered through the story but in the end this is a love story on many levels. The author has an interesting writing style for what should seem repetitive isn’t. The author’s attention to detail is superb. I recommend if you’re looking for something to sink your teeth into and you can appreciate a cold Wisconsin winter!
Quotes I liked:
Learning became her. She loved the smell of the book from the shelves, the type on the pages, the sense that the world was an infinite but knowable place. Every fact she learned seemed to open another question, and for every question there was another book.”
-“Catherine Land liked the beginnings of things. The pure white possibility of the empty room, the first kiss, the first swipe at larceny. And endings, she liked endings, too. The drama of the smashing glass, the dead bird, the tearful goodbye, the last awful word which could never be unsaid or unremembered.”
-“It was the middles that gave her pause. This, for all its forward momentum, this was a middle. The beginnings were sweet, the endings usually bitter, but the middles were only the tightrope you walked between the one and the other. No more than that.”
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters is a novel not to be missed. I went into the book completely blind, and it served me well. I still can’t believe this is a debut.When Ruthie, the youngest in a large Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia goes missing, her family is wrought with grief. Joe, one of the protagonists suffers the most as he was the last person with Ruthie. His life is shattered in many ways, both physically and emotionally. Not a day goes by where he doesn’t feel guilt and/or shame for his behavior. We learn early on that Ruthie was taken by a woman unable to hold a pregnancy. She is overprotective to a fault for fears of Ruthie (now Norma) getting hurt or recognized. Norma has dreams that relate to her family, but she was too young at four years old to have any real memories of her earlier family. Norma’s parents completely ignore her dreams by shushing them away.There is a lot of grief in this book, but there is also many lessons about forgiveness and hope. Peters also touches on alcoholism, discrimination, and terminal illness. At its heart, this book centers around the meaning of family, the hope of reunion and the ties that bond one person to another.I will be first in line to pick up Peters next book. The writing was exquisite.@amandapetersauthor #Catapult 📘 Have you ever been berry 🫐🍓 picking? #newbookreview#bookreview#bookreader#TBR #addtoTBR #booklover#bookstagram#goodbookfairy#goodbookfairybookreview ... See MoreSee Less