The Wednesday Daughters

I think it is well documented how much I LOOVED The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton.  It's one of the books I always recommend and if I could remember who I gave my copy to I'd totally re-read it.  To say I was looking forward to The Wednesday Daughters is putting it mildly. I put it on hold at the library and got it as soon as it became available, dove in that night and quickly was disappointed.

Description: It is early evening when Hope Tantry arrives at the small cottage in England’s pastoral Lake District where her mother, Ally, spent the last years of her life. Ally—one of a close-knit group of women who called themselves “The Wednesday Sisters”—had used the cottage as a writer’s retreat while she worked on her unpublished biography of Beatrix Potter, yet Hope knows nearly nothing about her mother’s time there. Traveling with Hope are friends Julie and Anna Page, two other daughters of “The Wednesday Sisters,” who offer to help Hope sort through her mother’s personal effects. Yet what Hope finds will reveal a tangled family history—one steeped in Lake District lore.

Tucked away in a hidden drawer, Hope finds a stack of Ally’s old notebooks, all written in a mysterious code. As she, Julie, and Anna Page try to decipher Ally’s writings—the reason for their encryption, their possible connection to the Potter manuscript—they are forced to confront their own personal struggles: Hope’s doubts about her marriage, Julie’s grief over losing her twin sister, Anna Page’s fear of commitment in relationships. And as the real reason for Ally’s stay in England comes to light, Hope, Julie, and Anna Page reach a new understanding about the enduring bonds of family, the unwavering strength of love, and the inescapable pull of the past.

I just could NOT get into this book.  There were bursts of OMG this is beautiful writing and I shed tears twice over parts where I don't even think they were THAT emotional but they were just so well-written.  However, I never got hooked.  I never felt engaged and sometimes it was down right hard to finish this book.  But I sooooo wanted to finish this book.  I  adored The Wednesday Sisters and wanted to know about their children. 

The things that made it not happen for me.  1) Beatrix Potter.  I'm not a fan and it was just boring boring and boring to me and sadly she is intermingled into the entire dang thing.  2) Poetry.  Try as I might, I'm just not into poetry.  It does nothing to me.  More skipping around happened when Robbie and Julie were quoting.  However, the stuff Robbie himself wrote? Was beautiful and the conversations he and Julie had about his OWN work is about the time I cried first I think.  3) A bunch a talk about stars.  Yeah, another topic I find boring.

"You pour a cup of your grief  out into a line of poetry, or twelve lines, or two hundred, and this thing, you can't swallow yourself becomes a thing others want to drink."

So, sadly, I didn't like it.  I will say that Clayton is a BEAUTIFUL writer who kept me finishing it and made me cry.  So, please read it if you loved The Wednesday Sisters and I hope like hell you love it more than I did.  Please let me know if you do. ;)

"In the gesture, I remembered my mother's soft voice saying that some things in life, you just have to know.  Someone tells you and remember it, and you tell it to someone else.  Sometimes you tell it directly, and sometimes you tell it through stories.  It's one of the ways we show our love. "

Have you ever be so sadly disappointed by an author of one of your favorite books?