Wow, this book was really good! Roseanna loses her best friend unexpectedly, which makes her realize that life is short and there are no guarantee. She gives up her life as a high-powered attorney in NYC and buys a run down farm to enjoy peace and solitude (the solitude part never really works out, for good reasons!) Roseanna's transformation was inspiring and I found this book to be very thought-provoking. Finding what is important in life and determining what truly makes you happy were a few of the recurring themes of this book. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Catherine Ryan Hyde hasn’t written a bad book yet. I enjoy her writing style, character development and plot lines a lot.
Heaven Adjacent moved at a comfortable pace and kept me guessing what would happen next. Another winner and a story I’d recommend for sure!

Heaven Adjacent is the very first Catherine Ryan Hyde Book that I have read. The book description really intrigued me, the idea of one morning waking up and deciding 'I hate my life I need something different.' The concept of literally leaving everything and everyone you know behind and driving off into the sunset until you find what you are looking for. Roseanna Chaldecott is a high powered New York litigator who is partner in a law firm that she started up with her best friend Alice. The untimely death of Alice turns Roseanna's world upside down and she finds herself driving off in her Maserati with nothing but the clothes she standing up in. She stops and discovers a farm for sale, is captivated by the view and the quiet and buys the property without really checking it out.
This is a tale of growth, the book follows Roseanna's journey as she learns that life is for living and enjoying and what she assumed was happiness was actually just existence. She rebuilds her relationship with her adult son Lance and slowly she realises that she needs to enjoy life and do things, not just earn money. Roseanna did not have a close relationship with anyone, not even her son. After the first few weeks on the farm she is suddenly struck by the reality of her life. All her adult years have consisted of work and the money that produced in order for her to have to material possessions. None of it had actually provided that illusive emotion of 'happiness'. As Catherine Ryan Hyde carries us along Rosie's journey we meet some wonderful characters and there is a great deal of humour in her writing which allows the narrative to flow so beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from start to finish and can't wait to read all her other books that came before.

Thanks to Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Catherine Ryan Hyde for the advanced copy. I truly enjoyed the story of Roseanna, who decides to run away from her life after the death of of her best friend. She thinks she is seeking solitude and peace and quiet, but what she finds are new friends who become family, and a new meaningful relationship with her only child. Such an interesting journey to experience with her, not always easy lessons to learn but they definitely lead to happiness for Roseanna and her new family. .

I was lucky enough to read an ARC of Heaven Adjacent and gosh was it good! This is a book that makes you question.....do I need all this "stuff".......do I need a car that is such a status symbol......do I want to put off for later what I really can do now??? So many questions and this book follows Roseanna as she changes her entire life and finds some interesting answers to those questions.

Of course there is more, there is always more! Lance, what a sweet young guy he is and the relationships he and Roseanna form with all the other characters just make this book. There really was only two characters in this book that I didn't care for, but no one else liked them either, so I guess that's okay.

The characters in this book practically jump off the page and call your name. They say come read this book and see if it will make you think differently. They say come sit down, put up your feet and read about an unlikely gang of people and the way they affect each other's lives.

I can't say it enough, READ THIS BOOK. You really need to READ THIS BOOK! I totally mean READ THIS BOOK.

Thank you to the author, publishers and Netgalley for the early copy of this very enjoyable book.

Heaven Adjacent – Catherine Ryan Hyde

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Roseanna is the central character in this novel and she begins the story three months after she makes a profound change in her life, presumably brought on by the stress of a high level legal job and he death of her colleague and friend Alice. Instead of heading to work one day, she calls in sick for a ‘mental health day’, gets in her car and sets out on a one-way trip – not knowing where she’s going, but knowing that she doesn’t want to come back.

Where she winds up is a small town in New York State, where she chances across a run-down small cottage on a beautiful piece of property, which is listed for sale. Enchanted by the quaintness and solitude of it all, she makes an impulse purchase of the property, and settles in. No phone, no cell signal, no disruptions – perfect. Until she discovers a pair of squatters on her property…

Then, a reporter appears from the New York Times, wanting to chronicle Roseanna’s decision to walk away from a high powered legal career, inadvertently leading her estranged son, and litigious colleagues to her door. Other colorful characters also appear, both human and otherwise, adding chaos to Rosie’s otherwise quiet life. The discovery of massive amounts of salvaged metal junk leads Roseanne to a new hobby – sculpting, the results of which generate ire with the local townspeople.

This is a sweet story of loss, isolation, introspection, and the real meaning of family, and what we really need, as strangers learn to live together and love, and old strained relationships are mended.

This was a nice, quick read, and I enjoyed it, despite it not being my usual genre of books. While I realize the theme of the story was centered on Roseanna’s flight, and re-discovery of herself, I would have enjoyed a bit more character development on the squatters – how they came to be where they were, etc. The addition of ‘Buzzy’ and ‘Earnest’ really made the book for me!

When lawyer Roseanna Chaldecott’s best friend and partner in their Manhattan law firm collapses and dies unexpectedly it rocks Roseanna’s world and she suddenly realises that work is not everything. She comes to the conclusion that it is not necessarily the best thing to work incessantly all your life if you don’t know what is ahead of you and you may not get to enjoy the retirement you are conscientiously working for in your future. She fills up the tank of her expensive sports car and heads out of the city looking for solitude and peace to give her the privacy and space to think things through. She tells no one where she is going, hardly packs a thing yet she knows she does not intend to return.
She eventually comes to a stop in the countryside, in the lee of a high mountain. She feels burnt out and in need of a rest. Her eyes fall upon a remote and claustrophobically small farmhouse, complete with a decent acreage, a stream, some woodland and outbuildings. Coincidentally it is up for sale so she goes about tracking down the agent, eventually closing the deal to buy the property. Little does she know that she has also acquired a squatter; a single mother with a small but inquisitive daughter. But that’s the least troublesome of her worries, and life is about to become fraught and increasingly complicated for Roseanna. This is the charming story of Roseanna’s new beginnings, a whole heap of challenges to overcome and a very happy reunion with an estranged close family member. She also adopts a stray dog and an elderly horse and becomes a metal working creative artist, just for the fun of it.
I always look forward to reading a new novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and she never disappoints. Her storytelling is exquisite, her plot developments always hold surprises and excite as well. I love her characterisation. She has a knack of creating diverse and really interesting characters that are not only likeable but warm and intriguing as well. They become like your own family and friends and you begin to really care about what happens to them. Her stories draw you in so that you have to keep on reading because you never know the direction her story will travel. I also like the fact that she weaves topical issues into her storylines. She does not shy away from thorny issues and tackles them head on. In this story she introduces gay characters, abandonment, greed and taking advantage of kindness. There are sad moments and happy moments, balancing the tone of the novel perfectly.
I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Lake Union for my copy of ‘Heaven Adjacent’, sent out to me in return for an honest review. Once again Catherine has written a heart warming and very enjoyable novel exploring many different themes such as friendship, compassion and reaching for peace and happiness.

"Maybe everything deteriorates in time, and maybe that doesn't make it any less worth having it while it lasts."
This is a novel that many need to read and really look at the message given.
A brilliant book that I actually felt I was living in. The details of the land and the feelings of each character described was amazing.
Rosanna- a NYC attorney gets into her car one morning after losing her "best friend" who dies suddenly, and drives until she runs out of gas. She finds herself in a small country town and decides then and there, that she has had enough of the pressures and noise in her life.
She moves into a tiny rundown cabin on a large piece of property. She finds a whole new world, relationships and happiness that she never had embraced before. It wasn't easy lessons to lear, until she accepted and opened her heart.
Definitely a terrific story!

Roseanna, a New York City attorney, decides to run away from her life. The death of Roseanna's best friend and law partner, Alice, had a profound affect on her. One morning Roseanna just decides to drive until her car runs out of gas and that's when she finds the farmhouse for sale and decides to buy it. Roseanna was in search of silence and solitude and thought she found it until she realized there were people living on her property and more were to show up. A journalist does a story about Roseanna and the animal sculptures decorating her yard, which causes her son and eventually her other law partner to find her. She didn't want want them to try and take her back to the city. Roseanna ends up with several people living on her land, a dog and a very old smelly horse. All end up becoming her family.

I LOVED Allie and Bea, Leaving Blythe River and The Wake Up, so I was hoping I would enjoy this book and not be disappointed. I definitely wasn't. This book isn't action packed, it deals with family relationships, forgiveness and loss. It's simply the story of Roseanna as she copes with life changes, mending her relationship with her son and creating a new family. I enjoyed the interactions Roseanna had with her squatters and definitely Ernest. I loved the story line, characters and writing style. I'm glad I don't have to walk up a mountain every time I needed to used the phone!!!

I highly recommend the book and look forward to the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and the author, Catherine Ryan Hyde, for a free electronic ARC of this novel

HEAVEN ADJACENT is an uplifting story of reconciliation. At first I wasn't quite sure what to make of our main character, Roseanna. We seem to jump right in and don't have a lot of background into her personality. However, the more I read, the more I realized that was intentional on the author's part as the back story does eventually get told and we understand why Roseanna walked out on her old life. I liked Roseanna's interactions with the "squatters" and how those relationships evolved over the course of the novel. The best part was Roseanna's relationship with her estranged son, Lance. Their interactions are laced with genuine emotion and again there's remarkable progress made throughout the story. My favorite scene is when they go to the gorge in Ithaca, especially when Neal shows up. Bravo for this heartwarming family story of how a woman reconciles with her son and finds even greater self acceptance.