Synopsis:
Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, both rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for tragedy between the two families.

It’s difficult to review this one without giving too much away, and it’s probably best to go in without knowing what the “tragedy” is. Much of the story centers on the children, Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, and their relationship as it transforms from best friends as children to much more as adults. The story covers several decades and involves multiple points of view, and it took some time for me to settle in to the narrative style and the characters. Keane is a lovely writer but she does keep the reader somewhat removed, emotionally. We often see many years passing in one chapter, or hear about events rather than watch them unfold in a scene. Still, I slowly came to love and appreciate all of these characters and the way they reacted to the events of one tragic night. This story can feel heavy at times, dealing with mental illness, addiction, disability, infidelity, and other topics. But I love a good family drama, and this one delivered. Peter and Kate’s relationship was the best developed, and by the last hundred pages I was wholly invested in them. A solid four star read for me. Recommended for readers who love literary fiction exploring imperfect family relationships. This is out NOW and is getting lots of buzz so definitely pick it up!

Thanks to @scribnerbooks and @netgalley for a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

i flew through the first half of this book and loved the pacing and the story line. it was such an interesting take on a typical suburban slice of life.

I thought the second half moved slowly. I was interested in how the kids would come back together and I wish the book had spent more time with them getting to know each other again, but that part is sort of glossed over and suddenly we're several years in the future. I also wanted a lot more answers about Peter's father, who seems stable and helpful for the first half and then...not so much. I never really understood why he did the things he did when he was so protective of Peter earlier in the book.

Four stars for the first half, two for the back, three for the book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Summary from goodreads: “A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.How much can a family forgive? Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come”

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Listen, first of all, I want to say the writing is absolutely beautiful. The author’s imagery left me feeling like I was right there in that little suburban neighborhood the summer night that tragedy struck. This book perfectly captures the essence of being human, we are all flawed and we all act like we aren’t. My heart hurt for Anne and the fact that she didn’t get care for her mental health, my heart hurt for Peter and Kate and the childhood together that they were robbed of. But I honestly feel like I can’t give this more than 3.5 stars because nothing about it was drop dead amazing. I’ll probably forget about it in a few months. I had a lovely time reading it, and I don’t regret it at all, but it definitely isn’t moving onto any favorite shelves any time soon.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an early readers copy.

TW: Depression, miscarriage/stillborn child, gun violence, child abuse, infidelity, cancer, mental illness, alcoholism

Beautiful! Moving! Gorgeous! I can't say enough good things about "Ask Again, Yes". It was an unexpected gem. This book will make you reflect on your childhood and how it has affected your today. You will also examine your past relationships and relate to both families. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absorbing family drama that centers around one event and its aftermath. I liked most of the characters and enjoyed the different points of view.

This got a 3 star because I wish the story had been told a little differently. I wish the characters were all covered a little more in depth so I felt like I got their parts of the story. I was disappointed that one of the characters was totally left out until a blurb at the end. I have no idea why the author would leave out what I considered to be a main character and then just give a glimpse of them at the end.

Mary Beth Keane's novel, Ask Again, Yes is ultimately about family, love, mistakes, forgiveness and being able to move forward in life, to move past tragedy and embrace our lives - both the good and bad moments. This is also a story that sheds light on some of the darker aspects of family life - alcoholism, mental illness, abuse and infidelity.

Brian Stanhope and Francis Gleeson are rookie cops who meet at the academy and are then assigned to the same precinct. Years later they find themselves living next to each other, their children becoming friends and the families forever intertwined.

On a night when young Peter Stanhope and Kate Gleeson sneak out to be together, tragedy strikes causing a huge rift between the two families. The two teenagers are ripped apart from each other despite their love for each other. Can their love survive distance, time and familial obligation?

I loved Kate and Peter so much! I was fully invested in their story and how it evolved over time. Though this was a slow moving novel (which I'm typically not a huge fan of), I found myself coming back to it every chance I got. The characters were well fleshed out and Keane wrote about mental illness with sensitivity. What I enjoyed most was that the relationships were not fluffy and easy - they were messy, complicated and deeply moving. This thought provoking book is one that should not be missed!

You know how some books are so intense, you need time to recover from the story and the characters? That’s what happened when I read Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this novel but as I got more into it, I didn’t want to put it down. This is the kind of book where you become emotionally involved with the characters and their lives. You really feel sympathy for them as they go through tough times in their lives and you want to shake them when they make bad choices.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next 40 years. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story, while haunted by echoes from the past, is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

This is a wonderful family drama with each character written in a way where you see them as multi-dimensional beings, not just words on a page. Its dramatic and tragic and deals with mental health, dysfunction, love, friendship. Many times books blend together in my mind because I read so much but this one will stand out for me, much the way The Goldfinch did.

MUST READ!

This book is out now and you can get it here.

Ask Again, Yes will be on my top 5 books of the year - it's already been ordered for my library and I plan to highly recommend it to patrons.

This book has been ALL OVER Instagram and just came out. Happily for me, this will end up on my favorite of the year list. The characters were real and vibrant. They jump off of the page and embedded themselves in my brain. This is a quiet novel, but one that gave me so many opportunities to relate themes back to my own life. It was also so nice to see working class families’ stories on the page. Fans of The Hearts Invisible Furies should like this one.

5 enthusiastic stars!

“Life is top heavy, that what happens early matters the most in shaping you”. The author writes beautifully and she showed us this truth in these characters in a way that was profound and deeply moving. We all start our lives full of promise and hope, never knowing the heartache and trials that await us. Such is life. And most of us would do it all over again.

This is a difficult book to summarize without spoilers so I’m keeping this review short on plot. The Stanhopes and Gleesons become neighbors in a suburb of NYC, when both are young married couples starting their families, full of hope for the future. Although both husbands are with the NYC police department, and are now next door neighbors, they have little to do with one another socially. However, a deep friendship blooms between 2 of their children, Kate and Peter.

Tragedy strikes and the resulting trauma changes the course of their lives. The focus is on how these two families find their way through it and make peace with the past. They go through a world of heartache but, written with empathy and insight, the story is not without hope. Best of all, this story is a realistic one with characters that felt real to me, and ones I came to care about deeply.

" ...memory is a fact that has been dyed and trimmed and rinsed so many times that it comes out looking almost unrecognizable to anyone else who was in that room...."

If you enjoy excellent writing and complicated family stories that are character-driven with thought-provoking themes, then pick this one up. A lot of heavy themes are covered but the author weaves them in so seamlessly that it works beautifully.

Nothing I can say will do this book justice. This is a case where the hype is justified and it has earned a place on my all-time favorites list.

• Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
• This was a buddy read with Marialyce and a book that sparked terrific discussions. This would make a great book club choice. Our duo review of this and others can be found on her blog at https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpress.com

Ask Again, Yes is an engaging read that kept me interested from beginning to end! I love books about families and relationships, which is exactly what this one is. It follows two families who lived next door to one another and the children that grew up together, specifically Peter from one family and Kate from the other. Something happens between the two families that causes a rift between them, causing Peter and Kate to lose touch with one another. In later years they reconnect, trying to make sense of what has happened. The author, Mary Beth Keane, does a great job of exploring friendship, family dysfunction/trauma, addiction, and mental illness, as well as strength, forgiveness and redemption.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Gleeson and Stanhope families! This book managed to cover some really heavy topics (mental health, cancer, addiction) in a gentle way while also showing the effects on the family. It was slow to start but definitely held my interest until the end!

This was an incredibly written book that captivated me the whole way through. Showing how mental heath impacts not only those who have illnesses but how profoundly it impacts the people close to them was done extraordinarily well. I love a good character study and seeing how that big event effected everyone was interesting but to me seeing how Peter turned out as a result of Both of his parents’ flaws/actions was brilliantly done.

Ask Again, Yes is an engrossing story filled with so much family drama that it shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. There is alcoholism, mental illness, and so much dysfunction, but that isn't what makes this book such a good read.

What makes this book so difficult to put down is the compassion, forgiveness and caring that fills the entire story. These are characters that experience a lot, but they do forgive and move on. It takes a while and there is angst and drama, but they get there. There are quite a few life lessons in here....if people listen.

Check out Ask Again, yes. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC at my request. My thoughts in this review are my own and freely given.

I struggled with this one. It's not my usual flavor so I read it slowly, not knowing what to expect. It glided along at somewhat a tedious pace. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for something big and pivotal to happen but it never did. There was no charisma, no "wow, I can't believe that really happened." This is a story of a family, it could be anyone's story, but I don't understand what made it unique enough to be a full book. The characters were hard to keep straight at times and were quite bland, and the nonlinear information was mingled in with current situations which made it hard to follow. I was mostly bored, mostly just wanting it to be over, feeling agonizingly tortured. I'm stuck in between 1 and 2 stars, but giving 2 stars because I did not passionately hate it, I was simply bored enough to fall asleep.

Thank you to netgalley for approving me for a copy to review.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley so much for the chance to read and review this free ARC! I don't feel that I can frame sentences well crafted enough to describe this beautiful novel. All of the adjectives you've seen in the hype surrounding this newest publication ring true; engrossing, profound, moving, heartbreaking, redemptive, soul touching. This is the achingly beautiful story of two families, lives intertwined, from 1973 to present day, through tragedy and triumph. Ask Again, Yes is exactly the type of novel to enforce Theory of Mind in the reader. I constantly found myself searching my conscience, heart, and soul to vet out how I would feel in the situation of each character.
Do yourselves a favor....read Ask Again, Yes, and read this article about Theory of Mind http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190523-does-reading-fiction-make-us-better-people?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=bbc-books&fbclid=IwAR3v329YthyF1ntt0-TFehvOCSeJn8QtrTuv8Ywmw89rKdnpp5o3AB2nFSE

ASK AGAIN, YES REVIEW
When I picked this book, I really did not expect the story to wow me as much as it did. Mary Beth Keane did an incredible job of addressing many topics that authors-and society avoid so often. When you read the first few pages, it quickly becomes clear that is is not anything like your usual contemporary fiction. Keane paints her scenes in just enough detail to give you the perfect aesthetic of the setting and characters. As the book progresses, we get a birds eye view of the life of two families, and more specifically, the youngest children and their parents.
This book covers a long period of time perfectly. Where many authors simply set the story along a month to a year, Keane expertly covers several decades. We meet both of the fathers in the very first scene, and we are given just a taste of what is to come. I was astounded by Keane’s characters. Her approach was perfect-we weren’t given a ton of intimate details about each character, but personally, I thought this was an incredibly good decision on the authors part, due to the length of time Ask Again, Yes covered. The book covered people and their lives more than their experiences, which is not to say those experiences are missing. Each character goes through compete metamorphosis as they age.
The end of Ask Again, Yes is so perfectly beautiful. We are given a reflection of a scene that may have seemed insignificant to begin with, and that makes it all the sweeter.
Overall, I think Mary Beth Keane perfectly blended time, family, and characters is Ask Again, Yes. She hit hard topics and ones that are considered painful to discuss in society today. I was so impressed by her attention to detail and her ability to paint strong, beautiful scenes.

This will be in my top five books of the year, without a doubt. In fact, I may need to read author Mary Beth Keane’s backlist titles because this was absolutely breathtaking. So much of this story resonates with me; someone that I love very much struggles with alcoholism and addiction, and I felt as though she was writing my own thoughts and words. Ask Again, Yes is such a powerful, beautifully-written novel and I can not recommend it enough. It is not what I would call a “beach read” or a “feel good” pick, but it is full of authentic, gritty, messy life and that’s what makes it worthwhile.

I have a definite book hangover from this one. Ask Again, Yes is a poignant family drama that really makes you think. It is exactly as the blurb describes which made me very happy. This will be the perfect summer book club selection. This was my first book by Mary Beth Keane and I can say it definitely will not be my last. Wonderfully written and stays with you long after you read the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Two NYPD rookies, Francis and Brian, get paired together right out of the academy. While they never become friends outside of work they each get married, start their families, and end up neighbors. Francis’ youngest daughter, Kate, and Brian’s son, Peter develop a close relationship from an early age which evolves into love. But near the end of their eighth grade year, a tragic event divids the families and the children are separated and forbid to have any contact. After following Peter through high school and college, the story brings Kate back into his life.

Told over forty years, this is a touching story of family, love, separations, and reunions with a number of poignant and thought-provoking moments. Overall, an excellent read – perfect for discussion. Hope my book club selects it for a future session it because I’d be happy to read it again.


FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.