THE GOOD DAUGHTERS

Author: Joyce Maynard

Genre: Fiction, Standalone

Published: 2010

Personal Rating: 3/5 (just okay)

Yearly Count: 74

From Joyce Maynard's Website:

They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital, into families that could hardly have been less alike.

Ruth Plank is an artist and a romantic with a rich, passionate, imaginative life. The last of five girls born to a gentle, caring farmer and his stolid wife, she yearns to soar beyond the confines of the land that has been her family's birthright for generations.

Dana Dickerson is a scientist and realist whose faith is firmly planted in the natural world. Raised by a pair of capricious drifters who waste their lives on failed dreams, she longs for stability and rootedness.

Different in nearly every way, Ruth and Dana share a need to make sense of who they are and to find their places in a world in which neither has ever truly felt she belonged. They also share a love for Dana's wild and beautiful older brother, Ray, who will leave an indelible mark on both their hearts.

Told in the alternating voices of Ruth and Dana, The Good Daughters follows these "birthday sisters" as they make their way from the 1950s to the present. Master storyteller Joyce Maynard chronicles the unlikely ways the two women's lives parallel and intersect—from childhood and adolescence to first loves, first sex, marriage, and parenthood; from the deaths of parents to divorce, the loss of home, and the loss of a beloved partner—until past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light, forcing them to reevaluate themselves and each other.

Moving from rural New Hampshire to a remote island in British Columbia to the '70s Boston art-school scene, The Good Daughters is an unforgettable story about the ties of home and family, the devastating force of love, the healing power of forgiveness, and the desire to know who we are.

I'm so disappointed that I didn't care for this book more, because I find Maynard's writing to be very engrossing. Her words can swallow me up and take me wherever she wants me to go. And, she did that with this novel as well; however, the book just felt like it had a cloud hanging over it - just too much gloom. Also, I didn't care for the way in which the details were revealed, because it seemed to never reach a climax. Well, it did, but I already knew it, so it felt like it just plodded on. Disappointing for me, but others will probably love it. Especially if you are a Maynard fan.

Again, my thanks go to LibraryThing Early Reviewers program and HarperCollins Publishers for sending me this ARC. The Good Daughters is scheduled to be released on August 24, 2010.