Review: Morning Glory by Sarah Jio

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Jio imagines life on Boat Street, a floating community on Seattle’s Lake Union—home to people of artistic spirit who for decades protect the dark secret of one startling night in 1959

Fleeing an East Coast life marred by tragedy, Ada Santorini takes up residence on houseboat number seven on Boat Street. She discovers a trunk left behind by Penny Wentworth, a young newlywed who lived on the boat half a century earlier. Ada longs to know her predecessor’s fate, but little suspects that Penny’s mysterious past and her own clouded future are destined to converge.

Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Expected publication: November 26th 2013 by Plume

Genre: Literature & Fiction

 Kristine's Thoughts:

* I received a copy of this book from PENGUIN GROUP Plume via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Sarah Jio has easily become one of my favourite authors. All of her books have captured me with their beautiful stories of past and present and Morning Glory does not disappoint.  Within this book there are two stories being told, Ada in the present and Penney in the 50's. The common denominator between these stories is that they both lived in the same houseboat although years apart.

Let me just say that I loved this book! I found myself equally engrossed in both stories and eager to figure out how it would play out. Normally with this style of book I find myself enjoying the story from the past the best but that was not the case. Both Ada and Penney's stories were strong, entertaining and highly emotional.

Ada...

Ada is an extremely likeable character that moves to a boathouse in Seattle to escape/heal from the tragic events that happened to her husband and daughter. Jio does a wonderful job in portraying the emotions and struggles she has along the way. We don't know the details in the beginning about what happened to James and Ella but find out as the story unfolds when she reminisces. In comes Alex, another extremely likeable character, who adds to her confusion and guilt. Along with her own personal demons Ada discovers that the woman that lived in her houseboat 50 years earlier (Penney) disappeared under suspicious and unusual circumstances. Ada and Alex then decide to try to figure out what happened.

Penney...

Penney's story takes place in the 50's when she moves to the boathouse as a newly wed with her husband Dex who is an artist. Dex is often away at his studio and Penney soon begins to realise that married life is not what she was expecting. She also finds herself drawn to her handsome neighbour Collin who seems to be around more than her husband. We know that Penney disappears but we don't know how or why and her story is told leading up to the events.

Jio does a spectacular job of weaving between the two stories so that they connect flawlessly. The characters are all well developed and I found myself invested in the outcome of all of them. The writing style is easy to follow and the story so entertaining that I easily finished the book in one day. 

I adored this book and would highly recommend  it to everyone that enjoys this genre. Sarah Jio has yet to disappoint me with anything she has written. This book was a very easy five stars for me!

  About the Author

Sarah Jio is the New York Times bestselling author of THE LAST CAMELLIA, BLACKBERRY WINTER, THE VIOLETS OF MARCH (a Library Journal Best Book of 2011), THE BUNGALOW, and the forthcoming, MORNING GLORY (11/26/13), all from Penguin/Plume. Sarah is also the former health and fitness blogger for Glamour.com. She has written thousands of articles for national magazines including Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, SELF, Real Simple, Fitness, Marie Claire, and many others. She has appeared as a commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition. Sarah lives in Seattle with her husband and their three young boys.  


Website-  http://www.sarahjio.com/
Twitter-sarahjio
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor 
Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4467375.Sarah_Jio