Immagine dell'autore.
8 opere 189 membri 12 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Award-winning journalist Fran Hawthorne has been a writer or editor at Fortune, BusinessWeek, Institutional Investor, and other publications. She is the author of three books on health care and investing, including Inside the FDA and Pension Dumping. She lives with her family in New York City.
Fonte dell'immagine: (C) Leonard Yakir

Opere di Fran Hawthorne

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1952
Sesso
female

Utenti

Recensioni

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne is a medium paced contemporary read that will have you peek into our lead's world as it flips on it's head.

Miranda Isaac seems to have the perfect life. She gets along with her family, her fiancé, Russ, is going after his dream job, and she's getting married soon. But all of that unwinds when Russ Steinmann's job requests security clearance of Miranda and her family. Miranda's secret about helping her friend kidnap her young child comes out, which is something she never told Russ. She tries to explain that she was helping her friend Ronit out of good intentions - her husband was abusive and trying to take their child away from them. But does that make everything right? Not so much.

In Miranda's pursuit of fixing her relationship, things go off the rails. Her life begins to spiral and she learns things about herself and her family that she would have never imagined to be true.

This book will pull at your heartstrings! There's heartbreak, there's compassion, and there's so much empathy in a book like this. Fran Hawthorne has crafted a book that reads so smoothly and easily, but also makes you want to shake the characters by their shoulders as if they are a good friend and yell at them. The book battles between what's right and ethics, which is also very interesting. At times, you know what is going on isn't the right path by society's standards but it feels right by the heart. You might even question if you would follow the same actions yourself (even if some of them aren't bright decisions). Would you hide big secrets from your family to protect them? When is the right time to tell them those big secrets? How might it affect your relationship? This book brings those questions up and does its best to show one of many opportunities for how it could go oh so utterly wrong.

We all have secrets, that's for certain. And this book welcomes us into Miranda's. Miranda feels very real and I just want to give her a hug. Fran made her very relatable, almost as if she is my friend or my neighbour. Her Mother Judith is also very relatable when you begin to read more about her as well. The book really shows how relationships can ebb and flow, and change over time. Then throw in Russ and his family (and legacy), and the spider web builds.

Also, the title is spot on. It really highlights quite a few characters in this story and things they probably should have told everyone else at some point.

Overall, this is truly a mesmerizing novel. It's a great contemporary read that is easy to read but will also bring some feels out.

Five out of five stars.

I received this book for free from the author, Fran Hawthorne, in exchange for an honest review.
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Briars_Reviews | 3 altre recensioni | Aug 4, 2023 |
The Heirs by Fran Hawthorne is a delightful, contemporary novel that lit up my bookshelf.

Eleanor's Mother, Rose, has a terrible fall and is suddenly speaking Polish. For many years, Rose has kept her history of the war a secret and not shared a word to a single soul. This sudden change sparks interest in Eleanor and the hunt for a secret past begins. Family secrets are unlocked, drama ensues and life lessons are learned. Will her marriage survive? Will her Mother and her's bond survive? Will her son ever enjoy soccer?

I found this book truly intriguing an addicting. It's hard to tell which way this book is going to go right off the bat, which is why I truly enjoyed it. There's so many secrets hidden and discussed, slowly being revealed as each chapter rolls on. Eleanor's entire life seems to be falling at the seams, and yet she keeps her cool and manages herself through all of it. Not only was this book about discovering the past, it was also about taking control of your present and future! Eleanor has to manage taking care of her Mother while trying to be a wife and a Mother. Not all of her life is sunshine and roses: her relationship with her Mother is strained, her cousin seems to have a better relationship with Rose, her marriage isn't in tip top shape, her son isn't interested in sports, and there may be a man flirting with her! There's so much going on for Eleanor and yet she handles it all like a pro (with some stumbles, but we all stumble once and a while).

Fran crafted this story wonderfully. I think enough information is released piece by piece, but it also moves at a fast enough pace to keep the reader interested. It's full of contemporary drama and insights into the past (specifically World War ll).

I can truly respect this book. I found it super engaging and I definitely want more. I could analyze this book while also drifting off into another world that reflects my own.

I can't find any real negatives about this book, if I'm being honest. I never studied much history or took a giant interest in it, so I felt like I didn't connect with the history as much as my history buff friends could have. People who enjoy history might like the little splash of Poland that is thrown in.

Overall, I'd highly suggest this book. I think Fran has crafted one of the best books of 2020 and I will be singing it's praises for years.

Five out of five stars.

I received this book for free from the author, Fran Hawthorne, in exchange for an honest review.
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Briars_Reviews | Aug 4, 2023 |
Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, starts with the disclosure of a little secret and follows the ripple effects of that disclosure back through years and relationships.

Miranda and Russ are engaged to be married and Russ is ready to start a new job in the U.S. Attorney's office. As part of a routine FBI background check, both must disclose any criminal history. Miranda had never told Russ that years earlier, she tried to help a friend and her child leave the US for Israel during her friend's nasty divorce. Although Miranda did not know this trip was illegal, is was, and she and her friend were arrested at the airport. Miranda was sentenced for a misdemeanor, which was later expunged. Because the conviction was not on her record, she didn't mention it to Russ or the FBI. Big mistake.

The story unspools from there. Other family and marital secrets come to light. The characters wrestle with the ethical dilemmas created by balancing secrecy and honesty. Hawthorne narrates the book through the multiple voices of those involved. The story remains upbeat and it is a fairly quick read, but provides food for thought. It would be a terrific book club pick.

I Meant to Tell You launched this month, in time for holiday gift giving. It is Fran Hawthorne's second novel after her 2018 debut, The Heirs.
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RoseCityReader | 3 altre recensioni | Nov 30, 2022 |
Sure, we all have secrets. That speeding ticket. (It was one time! I was lost in Detroit!) The doll shoes you stole from your cousin when you were eight and your doll was shoeless. (Sorry, cousin Debbie!) Not to mention that mad woman in the attic who just happens to be your wife. (That didn’t happen to me.)

Those sins of omissions, just not mentioning something you did long ago, don’t usually impact your life. But sometimes, they catch up with you and threaten to derail everything. “I meant to tell you,” but once upon a time I did something that I was too embarrassed to tell you about.

Fran Hawthorne’s characters in I Meant to Tell You become ensnared by the legacy of their own past actions, choices they have kept secret. Miranda and Russ are planning their wedding. Russ has applied for his dream job as an assistant U. S. attorney in the District of Columbia. Background checks bring to light Miranda’s arrest years previous when she tried to help a friend leave her abusive husband. But the secrets don’t end there. Miranda’s mother, and Russ himself, are revealed to have withheld vital information, threatening their relationships.

Miranda’s family legacy of political activism takes the story into the 1960s antiwar movement, her mother fabricating an idealist father who fought for justice. Miranda’s Israeli college friend married a man who becomes abusive, and Miranda agreed to drive her and her child to the airport, only to discover the husband had alerted police, accusing them of kidnapping of his child. And Russ’s estrangement from his father has its own dark legacy.

With relatable, well-drawn characters and it’s exploration into the stories we tell and the stories we hide, I Meant to Tell You is a thoughtful and insightful book. The deepening layers of concealed stories draw you into the story like a mystery. Each character has their flaws and poor decisions, but we feel sympathy and kinship with them. Central is the need for forgiveness, aware that we err but we can grow through mistakes and become whole, healthy people.

I received an ARC through Caitlin Hamilton Marketing in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
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nancyadair | 3 altre recensioni | Sep 22, 2022 |

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Statistiche

Opere
8
Utenti
189
Popolarità
#115,306
Voto
3.2
Recensioni
12
ISBN
18

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