Review Wednesday: The Nearness of You by Dorothy Garlock

Title: The Nearness of You

Author: Dorothy Garlock
1st Date of Publication: July 11, 2017

ISBN: 9781455527359
# of Pages: 384

Genre: Historical Fiction

Age Rating: 13+

Buy on Amazon 

Book Description:

Hooper's Crossing, New York, 1952. The post-war boom seems a million miles away . . . especially for a sheltered librarian who longs for the adventure and excitement of the big city.
New York City. The hustle and bustle. The people and the excitement. It's all Lily Denton dreams about. But ever since her mother died, her overprotective father won't ease up on her. So she spends her days working at the library and her nights hoping life doesn't pass her by . . . until the Fall Festival. As tourists fill the streets, the crisp autumn air sneaks in-as does the thrill of a far more dangerous kind.

Some men have a gift for avoiding trouble. Professional photographer Boone Tatum isn't one of them. In fact, that penchant for trouble is exactly what landed Boone in this small town in the middle of nowhere in the first place. Yet the moment he meets beautiful Lily Denton and snaps her photograph, everything changes. Suddenly leaving is the furthest thing from Boone's mind-or his heart.

But danger has slipped silently into this sleepy town, marking Lily as its own. And Lily and Boone's dream of a life together is thrown into peril-unless Lily finds the courage to stand up for herself and a man she only just met . . . and can't live without.


Setting: Early 1952 in Hooper's Crossing, New York

Point of View: 3rd person- Lily Denton and Boone Tatum

Goodreads Rating: 3.51

My Rating: 3.75

 

Part of the Book that Caught My Attention: Both

View on the Cover: It looks like someone, most likely a woman, is going on a trip somewhere. Where does she want to go?
View on Title: Who is you? Why does someone want to be near another?

Pros:

•  The balance of the alternating 3rd person was perfect. It made the characters have more dynamic while being able to see their intentions.
• The flow combined with the cliffhangers of each chapter made the book seem so short despite the book being almost 400 pages.
• The characters are interesting and seemed true to the time era.
• Lily Denton is your small town typical daddy's girl and doesn't want to disappoint him especially since her mother died when she was a little girl. She is a great representation of an independent person trying to recreate herself into someone she hopes to become. Her struggle to please her father is common for the time period.
• Boone Tatum is the  complete opposite. He's a city man and isn't afraid to get in trouble in order for the perfect picture. It's why he is so successful but the reason why he's stuck in Lily's hometown.
• The relationship between Lily and Boone is so natural that it seemed like they knew each other for years. It was slow but smooth.
• I really enjoyed the time period that the author used and the time of year because the fall seems like a time of festivities. Not only is there a fair going on in the book, you get to see Halloween.
• The different layers of conflict in the story line was interesting because as you read there are a few different antagonists but for different reasons.

Cons:

• The only real issue I had with the book was that I felt that it was a little cliché.

Critics' Reviews:

"Garlock's terrific story, set in mid-20th-century Missouri, pairs a lonely single mother with a flashy auto racer...Garlock keeps readers so wrapped up in Drake and Clara's romance that it's impossible to put the book down. There's just enough tension, from a few different fronts, to keep things interesting. Thoroughly credible characters and the aw-shucks charm of their small town make this a winner."―Publishers Weekly
"The latest from romance doyenne Garlock mixes light suspense with traditional romance for an entertaining effect." ―Booklist
"A gentle tale of love lost and found...The charm is in the telling, with historical details and light touches to make the town of Sunset, Missouri, seem real, not idealized. A feel-good love story that comforts...Garlock excels at creating an experience her readers want, one that's still heartwarming..." ―Kirkus Reviews

Dorothy Garlock's Website:

http://www.dorothygarlock.com/

Other Recommendations:

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Life Update from the Past Year (Summer 2016-Summer 2017)

I am really sorry my blog posts have been really sporadic and sparse. I have had a lot of life changes happen and I am finally getting back on my feet. My life is an adventure all the time and sometimes it is very difficult to figure out when is the best time to write. Writing is an art and it doesn't come easily sometimes.

School
A lot has changed when it comes to school. Since I have given my last update, I finished my senior thesis (which I have posted on here already) and I got an A on it, which is a blessing. Because that semester was really brutal from working overtime and a heavy school load, my GPA suffered a little bit. I still managed a 3.0 but I knew I had to do a little extra work to figure out how to make the overall GPA stay at a 3.5

Unfortunately, my plan to finish school in 2.5 years was foiled since a class got scheduled to the semester after I planned to finish. I was at a dilemma since I only had 4 classes to finish my English Literature major and Writing minor. It was going to cost me more money to finish so I added a Business minor because you can never go wrong with the pursuing anything in business. I graduated with my degree on May 20, 2017 with a 3.5 overall GPA. In my last year, I decided to take it easier on myself because the semester of my senior thesis has really run me down and I'm still trying to get back the energy I once had.

Home
I have been living on my own for over a year now. I moved out of my parents house a few days after my 21st birthday and started living with my boyfriend since it became harder to share a room with a 9-year old sister while working early in the morning. It was also nice to have him move closer so it didn't feel like we had to really make the relationship work long distance with busy schedules. It's a fairly good fit. I live in the stone ages according to some people since I have no cable or internet. That's one of the reasons why my writing has suffered. I have an easier time writing in my own home rather than public places.

A few months after I graduated, my boyfriend and I moved cross country from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Seattle, Washington because he was stationed there in the military and loved it and I always wanted to travel to the west. I have only been here for about 3 weeks and I am enjoying myself. It's just really hard starting from nothing again. The move has been hard for me because I have never been so far away from my family but I am trying to take it one step at a time.

Work
I did finally get my manager shirt in October 2016 through a lot of extra hard work that I shouldn't have had to do compared to the other managers. I didn't stay much longer after that because I was treated poorly even though I really put myself out there and didn't give any issues.

I wanted to work in a more sophisticated job setting where I can wear my own nice clothes and not wear uniforms that eventually smell like fries. Before Christmas, I put in my 2 weeks without a promise of a job (something that is extremely ballsy of me) and I put in applications. Thankfully, I found a job through Penn East Federal Credit Union as a part-time teller.

I really liked working there and I felt like an asset rather than an annoyance or useless. I proved myself capable and worth changing to full-time. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible since there wasn't any full-time positions available. That was until I put in my 2 weeks since I was moving out of the state.

That brings me to today. Since I live near Seattle, Washington, I have been hunting for a job for almost 3 weeks. After a frustrating time of job searching, I finally have a job at Columbia Bank as a traveling teller/member service worker. I am in the process of paperwork and waiting for my credentials to be approved. My training starts in mid-October. I'm looking forward to be working and I hate not being as productive as I usually have been in the past.

Traveling
I have done more traveling this past year than I have my entire life. Since my boyfriend loves to travel, it has really been effortless to see the United States. I have traveled as far down as Virginia and Maryland and all the way north to Maine. I have been to every single state in the northeastern part of the United States now. Since I have traveled cross country by driving our cars, I have stopped at all the states that are in the northern part as I got closer to Washington. I have been to half of the United States while my boyfriend only has 5 left.

Writing
My writing has suffered a little bit with the lack of internet at home since I have been living on my own and that I can't really afford the internet yet. I plan to get internet in the near future.

I also plan to write my own book because my job doesn't entail writing so I plan to write more and make it more in my new routine once I start a routine. I am going to be studying many books that involve writing in one way or another. I want to write my own book, but I don't know what that'll be like or entail. I want to come into writing my first book with a clean slate. My first book I read for it was On Writing: A Memoir of Craft by Stephen King, which was such an excellent read. I've learned so much about what writing entails and that I'm not alone as a struggling writer.

Thank you for reading this post. My life is so crazy and I'm just hoping for some normalcy in the near future. Since I only have to worry about working like an adult (Hallelujah!), it should be very soon.