Thank you to TLC BookTours, S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, #partner, for a finished copy of Fellowship Point in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books/ Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: July 5, 2022
Summary:
Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.
Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband, a philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She strives to create beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships, and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons—but what is it that Polly wants herself?
Agnes’s designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agnes’s resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all.
My thoughts:
I can’t believe I waited so long to read this one! I got it last year and while I did feature it for a book tour, it just sat on my bookshelf until this past January when I read it for the book club I host. I’m so glad it had been pre-selected and we decided to just go with it…I absolutely loved it!
I absolutely love family dramas and this one, a massively thick book, completely swept me away. I alternated between the print and audio and found myself totally engaged. Once I started, I didn’t want to put it down and finished it in a matter of days, though I did start to slow down towards the end because I didn’t want to say goodbye to these characters. And I haven’t stopped thinking of them since I finished the book.
This is a story about strong women and female friendship. I loved that Agnes and Polly were older characters. It isn’t too often we see books where the main characters are in their eighties and still pretty much with it. These women have been friends for as long as they can remember and yet they still don’t know everything about the other one. I loved learning about all the challenges they faced throughout their lifetime, the loves they had, and the heartbreak they faced.
What I also loved about this one is that there are many plots happening to really keep you fully engaged. My favorite involved the publishing story, of course and that introduces us to another character that becomes integral to the plot. We also have the land trust plot and I loved how that involved brought in the generations of both families. And of course, throughout all these plots, there is the theme of community and the acceptance of aging.
This is the type of book that might look intimidating by size but really it’s one that completely consumes you once you start reading it. It is also one that I think depending on where you are in life, you will have a different response to it. Being in my mid 40s, I’m sure I appreciated things differently than I would have had I read this in my 20s.
This really does make for a great book club book, providing your book club is not too intimidated with the size. There is so much to unpack within this book – our book club had a great discussion and most of our members really enjoyed reading it!
Audio thoughts:
As much as I loved reading this in print, the audio was just magical and I think that is largely in part because it is narrated by Cassandra Campbell. She is one of my favorite narrators and she definitely brought her A-game to this narration!
