I am back with another book review! Today, I am reviewing Glens Falls: Book One by Malynda Schlegel. Thanks so much to the author for sending me a copy of her book for review! All opinions are my own.
So let's talk about the one 'main' family first, the Amherst's. We see both the parental, career and marital struggles of Grant and Sophia as well as the love life dramas and just general problems with their children, twins Wesley and Alexia. Oh and their neighbours son of the same age, Jared.
We also see single mother Virginia and daughter Breanne's struggle with disconnect, and boy trouble, a string of 'handsy' boyfriends for Virginia and an independent boyfriend with his own problems, Connor, for Breanne.
AND we see Connor and his friend/occasional roommate Travis who's a bit of a jerk for no real reason.
As you can tell, there are a lot of characters to keep track of. Everyone is interconnected somehow. Everyone is someone's best friend's sister. Or someone's boyfriend's friend. I hesitate to say it, but this sort of reminded me of a soap opera. Before I lose you, hang on. Not in the annoying, overly dramatic, woe is me, sort of way. Just in the way the story was told and how the characters were connected.
Even though there are a lot of characters, you still get a full, fairly complex understanding of who they are. There isn't really one main character, there's nine. You get glimpses into the heads of each of the characters, while still not being able to figure out exactly who they are in one chapter.
I feel like for some people, this may be jarring. If you are used to first person, where you are in the head of one sole narrator, you may find this book hard to follow. But if you keep an open mind, and just follow the story, you will enjoy it.
The only reason I didn't give this book a full 5 star review is because of the ending. I know its a series, but I just felt like the ends were tried to be somewhat tied up, but didn't really. Like with all the issues with Grant and Sophia, things are kind of cleared up, but the author also kind of keeps you wondering if things will stay the way they ended.
Overall, this was a very interesting and unique story that deals with the struggles of family, love and school life, and I definitely recommend it!