Nicole BaartRecensioni

I really wanted to like this book. I loved the author's first series After the Leaves Fall and I remember saying to someone that it was like reading poetry. It was beautifully written. The author has slowly evolved since then and this book just didn't do it for me. I enjoyed the way the book was set up. I liked the different POV in each part and I liked all the different things that were interspersed between the chapters in each different section. I found those interesting to read and thought they added to the story.
I quite enjoyed the first part of the book and was quickly reading to find out what happened to Eva. But the story took an odd turn and it just didn't fit with the first part of the book. I found Charlie to be a bit on the annoying side and didn't really care for her character. I really liked Eva's character and was rooting for her.
The author does have some more poetic type phrases in this book but instead of me thinking of it as beautiful writing they just annoyed me. In my mind they just didn't fit in this type of genre. For example: "The slam of the front door hits Eva like a bullet to the chest." "Charlie can feel frustration coming to a head, foaming up and out of her chest in a fizz of frantic energy."
There was a few instances of mild profanity.
This book was reviewed on the Literary Club Podcast episode 59
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185

I've waited a day to review this so that I give it a fair shake. Everything we Didn't Say was my first read by Nicole Baart. Unfortunately, I 'read' this via audio; therefore, I needed some time to compartmentalize the reading vs. the writing. Suffice to say, I was not a fan of the narrator - Every. Word. Was. Spoken. In. Anger. I nearly gave up and put it on my DNF - ever, shelf; I'm glad I persevered. I liked the book.

While not a fast-moving or mind-bending thriller, Everything We Didn't Say was a well-written, entertaining novel that held my attention. Set in an obscure, sleepy town in Iowa, I could appreciate the know-it-all tone and the ho-humness of the life led there; I, too, grew up in such a town.

The book vacillates between the present (written in third-person) and 14-1/2 years ago (written in first-person; I liked that shift). Juniper Baker's brother is suspected of murdering the Baker's neighbors, June becomes pregnant by an unknown, hands her child over to her mother, and runs away to live her own life (we can all guess who the father is). Finally, all the pieces come together through a very slow burn, and the dangling mini-mysteries are solved; much to my chagrin, happily ever after.

Perhaps it's my age, and maybe it's the experiences I have had, or, likely, I have read too many books with HEAs, but what I wouldn't give for a good, old-fashioned, reality ending of: He's actually the killer, your childhood lover really just used you for sex and wants nothing to do with you or the baby, and the daughter whom you abandoned at birth to your mother, still abhors you. The End.

Baart explores the complexity and repercussions of family secrets in this book that travels between the past and the present to solve a double murder. Compelling, but would've liked a bit more fleshing out of the motives at the end.

Romance

I must have read a different book than everyone that gave this 5 stars!
Reads like a YA book. In the first 60 pages you can easily figure out:
Who how the story will end
Who the father is of June’s kid
Most of the misdirection regarding who the killer is and isn’t.
Then you get 200 pages of boring fluff that goes nowhere and means nothing.
The past 40 or so pages has the reveal but by then it was just an explanation of what I already figured out.½

A great mystery/suspense novel about adoption, the deep love of a mother...no matter if she gave birth to the child or not, and it's a story about trusting those we know and love. It will keep you guessing as to what really happened, and the "who" behind it!

The Long Way Back by Nicole Baart is a very highly recommended domestic thriller with several surprising twists in the plot.

When her thirteen-year-old daughter Eva begs her for an Instagram page, Charlie, mother to Eva, agrees to open a shared one as mother and daughter. The page is titled The Sutton Girls and a photo Charlie takes of Eva goes viral and the two actually begin to become influencers. After a year, the name of the account is changed to Eva Explores. The two share photos and descriptions of places they traveled, camped, and explored in their vintage Airstream trailer. Charlie is always very careful to never photograph their full faces.

When Eva is ready for her senior year of high school, she asks if the two can settle down so she can attend high school. They temporarily settled in Minnesota on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Eva has a job and is sending off applications to colleges. Charlie is hoping for one more summer on the road, but Eva isn't interested. The two do take their boat out on the lake one day just before Eva's graduation. When Charlie falls asleep on the boat, Eva disappears and Charlie is the main suspect. But hold on because that is just the first act of this novel. Things are about to get much more complicated and twisty.

The well-written narrative is told through the point of view of Charlie, Eva, Instagram posts, and Eva's college application essays. The presentation of these various plot elements work very well. The novel is almost divided into several sections. They are all interconnected, but each new revelation will be totally unexpected and shocking as it is explored in the novel.

One important point that can be written about is the two largest fears that are tapped into: a child's disappearance and the risks inherent in social media. Both Charlie and Eva are characters you will care about and long the best for in the end. The writing is pitch-perfect as it reveals new information and twists in the plot. Readers will not be able to guess the direction the plot is going to take.

A note must be made about the quality of the writing. Baart does an exceptional job presenting the story in the most caring, suspenseful, and intricate way possible. The Long Way Back goes above and beyond many mother and daughter novels. This will be a perfect choice for book clubs as there is so much that could be discussed.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books via Edelweiss.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/06/the-long-way-back.html

Such a great read! The characters were likeable and easy to relate to. There are layers to the story that were both fun and exciting to uncover. Thriller lovers should add this to the top of their lists!!

At first this book felt a little mass-market and if it was going to deliver a cheap thrill. Then it got kind of good - I had a lot of questions about Juniper and why she left Jericho and her daughter behind, and I was really interested in her story and what really happened when she was a teenager. However I was quickly able to make some really good guesses about what happened - who Willa's father was, etc. There was one twist I didn't quite expect but the foreshadowing was all there as well.

It's a good thrill and a quick read once you get past the first 30 pages or so.

This is a look at the relationship between mothers and daughters and asks how well mothers know their daughters and how well daughters understand their mothers no matter how close their relationship appears to be. For the mother and daughter duo in this story the truth is revealed when the daughter disappears.

Mother Charlie and daughter Eva have always been close -- it's always been just the two of them against the world. A picture that they post on social media goes viral and they end up creating an Instagram account called Eva Explores. They pack up an old airstream camper and travel around the country while keeping their fans updated on their travels. Eva tires of the travel and asks if they can settle down while she finishes her final year of high school and makes plans for college. They settle in a small town in Minnesota on Lake Superior and their relationship continues to be very close - or is it? When Charlie admits that she's tired of being settled down and wants a few more months of travel, Eva refuses. After much discussion, Eva relents but the next day, she disappears from the small boat that she and her mom were on while her mom was taking a nap. When Charlie is rescued, the police become involved and Charlie is the main suspect in her daughter's disappearance. Even as the FBI becomes involved, Charlie remains the main suspect. She knows that she is going to have to do some investigation on her own to clear her name and find her daughter. I really can't say much more about her investigation without spoiling the book for other readers but I will you tell you that the second half of the book was full of twists and turns that kept me rapidly turning pages.

The story is told from both Charlie and Eva's points of view and their chapters are interspersed with Instagram posts and college application essays that Eva has written. I thought the addition of the essays helped give much more depth and background to Eva's story.

This book was a look at two major issues -- the effects of a family living their lives on social media for the entire world to see and a look at the difficulty that some mothers have in realizing that their children are growing up and need to have a life of their own separate from them.

This was a definitely suspenseful read. It drew me in quickly and even though I found Charlie to be overbearing at times, I still hoped for a positive outcome after Eva's disappearance. You don't want to miss this one especially if social media is a major part of your life.

So many complications in this adoption story---and so cleverly handled by Baart as she leads the reader through all the possible ramifications that can happen with such an unusual mystery mixed into it all. Wonderful book to read about so many issues that can arise in adoption and as Baart explains...she, too, is a mother of adopted children.

DNF

I really enjoyed this book and although it's rare for me to like this, I am glad that they did not just focus on the murder, but also on June's life. I had a feeling from the beginning that Law was going to have been involved and I figured he was going to take the route that he did in the end. I wish we had gotten more closure between June and Sullivan and gotten the reason why Sullivan married Ashley in the first place. I really wanted June and Sullivan to be together so it would have been nice to see.

Juniper returns to her Iowa hometown. She hasn't been back in over a decade, but she tells everyone that she has returned to help her friend who is battling cancer. Which is true - but Juniper definitely has ulterior motives, lots of them. There is her somewhat estranged family - especially her brother, who she was once close to - and her daughter, who she has only seen once a year since she left. But the bigger question in her mind is finally putting to rest the question of who was behind the double homicide of her next door neighbors. Juniper knows someone is about to dig into the case of the Murphey's murder and feature it on a podcast, and she wants to do all she can to protect her brother - the biggest suspect - from more suspicion. As Juniper digs into the past, she gradually discovers that there was a whole lot more going on that summer than what she was aware of.
I enjoyed the twists and turns in this book and the sense of suspense that built up to the gradual reveal of who the killer was. A lot of people were keeping secrets, but it ended about as well as it could have. This is a great read for fans of thrillers and psychological suspense - especially if they want it to be a "PG-13" read.½

Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ The murders took place on a hot summer night, but to Juniper it would always be winter in Jericho.

This book was intense. The alternating timelines add so much depth to the story. I was taken away between past and present navigating secrets, love and small town living in this book that was super hard to put down. A must read for thrill lovers. You will love the pace and setting of the book. You are sure to be enthralled from cover to cover!

There’s plenty of tension in this story about Juniper Baker who returns to her small hometown in Iowa, hoping to find out who really killed some neighbors many years ago. Blame continues to be directed at her brother, but she knows he didn’t do it. She’s also hoping to have a part in her daughter’s life. Juniper gave birth to Willa 12 years ago but left for college and Willa was raised by her grandparents. Add in a police officer who has his own vendetta, Juniper’s job and the library, a former high school friend who now hates Juniper, and there’s a lot going on. The story moves back and forth from the present to 14 years ago when the murder took place.

This family drama takes place in a small town where everyone seems to have secrets. It's a dual time line story giving us Juniper's story in present time and 14 1/2 years ago.

In the earlier time line, Juniper is enjoying her last summer before she goes away to college. She is in the midst of a passionate summer romance with Sullivan. She's lost her best friend because Ashley was in love with Sullivan and he chose Juniper and not her. Life doesn't always work out the way we've planned and Juniper's certainly didn't When a couple at a neighboring farm are brutally murdered, her brother becomes the main suspect. She leaves her family, her boyfriend and her life in Jericho with plans to never return.

Fourteen years later, Juniper finds out that someone is doing an 'unsolved murder' blog about the murder in Jericho all those years ago and seem to be pointing the finger at her brother again. Officially she is going back to help an old friend who has cancer manage the library. But the main reason she's going back is to try to reconnect with her fourteen year old daughter who has been raised by her mother and step-father. Will finally finding out the truth uncover secrets that should have been brought to light after the murder? Will the truth keep her from re-igniting her life with her daughter, her brother and her parents?

The author does a fantastic job of weaving the narratives from the two timelines as she slowly unwraps clues to the surprise ending. At times, I wasn't sure who the murderer was...maybe it was her brother after all. Normally we refer to small towns as people knowing everyone else's business but in this book, many people in this small town are hiding major secrets.

This ending of this multi-layered family drama was a surprise and a perfect ending. The clues had all been there so it was a realistic ending. I have read several books by this author and need to get her books that I haven't read.

This book is a real page turner that you don't want to miss

This book started out with promise. At first, I liked the characters and I liked the mystery that it began with. I should mention that I listened to the audiobook. I'm not sure if it would have made much of a difference if I'd read it instead. By about half-way through I found I was skipping ahead a lot. I was drowning in the interminable minutiae about Jess's family life, and I was getting tired of all the parenting details, and tired of her misbehaved children. About half-way through I had figured out most of the underlying plot, but then it took forever to get to the reveal, and then even that was drawn out. I was mightily sick of Jess by then as well, as she just didn't seem to make a decision and stick with it, let alone do anything or pursue anything to try to find out what happened to her husband. It was so frustrating. And the cops were totally out to lunch throughout. I don't think that in the real world, the police would take things at face value, and not even attempt to try to figure out what actually happened after a crime has been committed. I did finish the book, so I have given it 2 stars. I still think that the premise of the book was a good one. It touched on the world of adoption and it's many pitfalls and uncertainties. That topic is an important one, and in the hands of a better writer, the topic could have had much more of an impact. For me, I was glad to finally get to the end.

Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart is a tight and twisty suspense novel that keeps you reading.

The main thing that would have made this a little better for my taste would have been a slightly faster pace. I like the slow burn and the revelations coming often through the past timeline, but just a touch more pacing would have been ideal for me. That said, I think it would have suffered if it had been written as a nonstop edge of your seat thriller, there needed to be time to take in the relationships and the nuance. So if it couldn't be my ideal (and very few match perfectly with any reader) then I prefer it a tad slower than too fast paced.

One way I can tell that I was pulled into the world of the work (as an old professor liked to emphasize) is that I have unanswered questions that don't directly impact the mystery at hand but would help me better understand and like/dislike some of the characters. That means, to me, that the writing was good, even if some of the information would have helped to better flesh out the characters.

I would recommend this to readers who like twisty stories that are told through two timelines. Also readers who like to take the mystery in and ponder it a bit rather than have nonstop action like an action film.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Goodreads.

Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart is a highly recommended novel of suspense and a family drama.

Juniper (June) Baker is returning to Jericho, Iowa, the small town where she grew up. Currently she is a special collections and archives librarian for a college in Colorado. She has taken a leave of absence and is returning to help Cora, the librarian in Jericho, who has stage 4 breast cancer, but she has other more complicated reasons for returning. Fifteen years ago Cal and Beth Murphy, who lived on a neighboring farm, were murdered on the night of July 4th. Fourteen years ago she left her infant daughter, Willa, in the care of her mother and stepfather. Now Juniper is hoping to bring thirteen-year-old Willa home with her to Colorado. She also plans to finally look for the truth behind the murder of the Murphys. Her brother, Jonathan, was the prime suspect, but never charged. Juniper has a secret about that night that she has never shared and now may be the time to reveal what she knows.

The writing is excellent and the plot unfolds in alternating narratives set in the past and present. In the present day someone has taken a new interest in the Murphy case and is seemingly determined to get Jonathan charged for the murders. Juniper knows he is not guilty and wants to find out who is behind the push to charge him. The narrative set in the past occurs during the summer of the murders, right after Juniper graduated from high school, and follows events leading up to the crime. The difference between a teenager experiencing the events and an adult reexamining them is the crux of the plot. When present day events begin to point to someone taking action against Jonathan, Juniper feels like Willa's life may be in danger. While readers won't know Juniper's secret until the end of the book, the suspense is still palpable in Everything We Didn't Say due to the duel timelines.

Adult Juniper is a complex, relatable character. She is trying to figure out exactly what happened that summer night while knowing that Jonathan was not responsible for the murders. Teenage "June" is, well, a teenager who as a group are usually more self-centered and aren't normally known for always exhibiting good judgment or being observant about what is going on around them. As an adult it is easy to see what Juniper may have been missing as a teen so it is satisfying to follow her investigation into present day actions while knowing information about the past. When Jonathan is suddenly incapacitated and Juniper is unable to talk with him about the past, it makes current events even more fraught with peril at every turn.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/11/everything-we-didnt-say.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4321789943

Living in a small town can be murder! Enjoyable, fast paced read. I love stories that are written in dual timelines, and this story flows seamlessly between the past, where an unsolved murder in a small town is blamed on a young man to the present, where the now older man is being harassed and targeted and his sister returns to town to find the truth all these years later.

I enjoyed the characters, so flawed and real. My opinion of some of the characters changed as the storyline unfolds. While I did figure out some of what was going on, the story had so many layers to it that I found it hard to put down. I would love to read a sequel to see what happens to this group now that the truth of the murder has been solved. While murder is at the center of this story, there are other issues going on…young love, complicated friendships, environmental pollution, feuds, long-held grudges and family secrets.

Thanks to Ms. Baart, Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Secrets of a small town. Reminded me of where I grew up. I guessed the ending.

This book!! I had high hopes for this one and it did not disappoint! It was my first Nicole Baart and it won’t be my last. I was hooked from the beginning and it was completely engrossing. I love that it focused on the issue of adoption but it was so much more than that. I loved the mystery about Jessica’s husband and it kept me guessing until the very end. The characters were incredibly detailed and I felt like I could totally connect with what they were going though on this journey of what makes a family and who the people around you really are...Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart is a complex and compelling novel about betrayal, friendship and redemption. This touching story is an incredible journey of healing and forgiveness that is poignant and ultimately, freeing, for the two main protagonists.

After the death of her fiancé, David, five years earlier, Adrienne "Adri" Vogt fled from her small hometown of Blackhawk, Iowa for a nursing job in West Africa. She has avoided thinking about the series of events that led to his untimely death but when David's mother passes away and appoints Adri as the executor of her estate, Adri is forced to return home where she not only confronts the ghosts of her pasts, but eventually reunites with her best friend, Harper Penny. Harper also left Blackhawk and found herself on an increasingly self-destructive path that culminates in an abusive relationship that she finally finds the strength and courage to leave after Adri impulsively reaches out to her. Adri and Harper's reunion is guarded as both avoid discussing their heartbreaking history until a near tragedy finally forces both women to confront the past that has defined and, nearly destroyed, them for so long.

Adri and Harper's unlikely friendship begins in college and for four years, they, along with David, Adri's twin brother Will and Will's friend, Jackson, were inseparable. The Five (as they called themselves) enjoyed lavish get togethers at David's family estate but their close bond begins to feel the strain after David and Adri's engagement. Both women find themselves keeping secrets that prominently center around David and when Harper convinces The Five to go on one last vacation together following graduation, the trip ends with David's death. The mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death is one of the driving forces of the novel while the impact of his death on Adri and Harper is just as riveting.

Neither women can forgive themselves for their perceived roles in David's death but they deal with their guilt in very different ways. Adri isolates herself from her friends and family by taking the job in West Africa while Harper falls into dead end jobs and living paycheck to paycheck. Adri's self-imposed exile also leaves her little opportunity to date, but just before returning home, her co-worker, Caleb, finally expresses his interest in her which she returns, but refuses to acknowledge. Harper, on the other hand, has been in a relationship for several years with a man whose manipulative behavior is taking an increasingly dark turn.

Flashbacks from both Adri and Harper's points of view reveal the circumstances leading up their rift. Adri provides the details of their friendship in addition to her romance and subsequent engagement to David. Most of Harper's recollections focus on David but both women recount the series of events leading up David's death. Once they finally discuss that fateful day, will Adri and Harper finally be free of the guilt that haunts them? Will they be able to forgive themselves and each other for the mistakes of the past? Will Adri and Harper repair their fractured friendship?

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart is a character driven novel that is quite captivating. The storyline is well-developed and touches on several relevant social issues in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner. The characters are multi-dimensional and although they are flawed, they are sympathetic and engaging. It is a truly unforgettable story of healing, forgiveness and friendship that I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend.

4.5 stars.