My Kind of People by Lisa Duffy Reviewed on April 8, 2020 ~ 3.5 rounded up

This is a heartwarming story about family, an island community, and secrets.
It was a bit slow at first as I knew ahead of time that young Sky is orphaned again ~ first by her biological parents who left her as an infant at the fire station and now her adoptive parents are killed in an auto accident.
Story is not my typically twists and turns page turner but there are great characters and there is a bit of a mystery, and yes I was curious.
“My Kind of People” was a nice read during this nasty “corona” time.

Want to thank NetGalley and Atria for this early release granted to me in exchange for an honest review. Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 12, 2020

This is a great book to escape everything that is going on in the world. This story emerges you in a small town New England community - touching on various issues in a sensitive way. It includes a little bit of everything - mystery, love, family drama! The perfect heartwarming story to get lost in.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to come but this was another 5 star read by Lisa Duffy! Absolutely amazing and again her book will be one of my favorite books of the year. A must read.

I loved Lisa Duffy’s last novel, This is Home, and her new one is also a wonderful read. Leo lives with his husband, Xavier, on Ichabod, an island community in New England. When Leo’s best friend and his wife die in a car accident, he finds himself with custody of their 10 year old daughter, Sky. There are so many well drawn characters in the village, such as Agnes, the school nurse and snobbish busybody, Maggie, an elementary school teacher who is trapped in her marriage, and Lillian, a newcomer, who is also Sky’s grandmother. Everyone on the island seems to have secrets, and some of them will prove to be life-changing. If you enjoy well-written character-driven novels, Lisa Duffy should be on your to-read list. Thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for this ARC.

A community of wonderful characters that could easily have been built by Jodi Picoult. This story is very emotional while at the same time it builds strength through community. Each character's story is woven into the overall feel good mood to make the reader care about them and feel as if they know them. I really loved the story and appreciated the time and effort Lisa Duffy took to build this world. I'd love to see where life takes them next.

5 Stunning Stars!!!

Lisa Duffy’s talent of transporting the reader into her books is amazing! This is my second book by this author and I loved every second of it. I found myself so deeply immersed in the story that I felt like I was one of the members of the tight knitted community of Ichabod Island. All the characters were perfect in their imperfect ways. I loved Leo and Sky’s relationship, and Maggie was a perfect catalyst to the everyday neighborhood drama.

This book has everything: mystery, family dynamics, addiction, tragedy, mental illness, racial and social differences, secrets, betrayal, and most importantly hope and love. I simply could not get enough of this book!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

My Kind of People is about the lives of people on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Leo and his husband Xavier find themselves guardians of Sky, a ten year old girl, after her parents are killed in a car accident. Well, Leo is named guardian and Xavier is pulled along without much thought to his feelings about the situation. So their relationship is tested. Sky is starting to get her bearings with her new life when her grandmother moves to the island. That adds to the overall drama. There are neighbors with their own relationship issues. It really is a character driven novel about what it means to belong, fit in, finding one’s place and I loved it all. When I finished I wanted to know where things were going with other characters. I’d love to read more about these people! For me, that’s always a sign of a good book.

This is a good drama set in a small town, and told in a mostly engaging way. There are a number of helpful reviews from smart people out there already, so I'll just recommend it.

Thanks very much for teh ARC for review!!

Another book about a remote island, this time in Massachusetts. There must be something in the area, so many women who are alone in a community. I thought all of the characters were super well developed and diverse in their issues. It was a real peek into a community very different than my own.

Wow, I absolutely adored this book!
Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for an advanced reader copy!
My kind of people is set on the island of Ichabod, a few miles off the coast of Massachusetts. When a local couple die suddenly in a car accident, their daughter, Sky, is made an orphan for the second time in her life and is left in the custody of their best friend Leo. My kind of people follows Sky and Leo as well as a few other locals of the island as they face the grief over their loss, navigate tumultuous relationships and make surprising friendships with their neighbours on the island. Throughout the story, various deeply hidden secrets come to the surface and the story takes a few wild twists and turns. My kind of people has themes of love, deceit, scandal, mental health, regrets and hope. I truly loved it from start to finish! It gave me big little lies vibes mixed with an Elin hilderbrand novel😂 it’s heartbreaking but heartwarming at the same time. my kind of people is releasing May 12th and I 100% recommend picking it up!!! 5/5⭐️ #netgalley #mykindofpeople

This is an awesome novel that is touching and moving. It tells the stories of neighbors who influence each other’s lives while watching out over a young girl. Their stories converge to form a fantastic novel.

4.5 Stars

As a newborn, Sky was left at the Fire Station on Ichabod Island, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts, and was soon thereafter adopted by Ann and Brian. At the age of ten, Sky loses the only parents she has ever really known when they are killed in an accident. Enter Leo, who learns that he has been named Sky's guardian upon the death of his close friends, having grown up on Ichabod Island. Leo, and his husband Xavier, had agreed to a childless marriage, but he’s known, and loved, Sky all of her life, and can’t imagine walking away from her. But Sky is not the only obstacle for Xavier, the quiet island life is not for him, he prefers living in the city.

Leo, on the other hand, is determined to make sure that Sky is surrounded by love, out of his love for her parents, for Sky, and for himself. As time passes, they grow even closer, and a distance grows between him and Xavier the more devoted he becomes to Sky.

There is much more to this story, but if you’ve read Lisa Duffy’s This is Home, which I read and loved, or The Salt House, which I haven’t read yet, but am looking forward to reading, then you won’t need much convincing to read this one. It covers a lot of the things that tear couples, families apart, from alcoholism to mental illness, secrets and the way they tend to come to the surface - infidelity, the Me Too movement, race, sexuality, and more – but in subtle ways that are woven through the story. The people who live on this island, the magic of this island itself, a dash of mystery, and the way this place and these people surround this family with love made this a joy to read.


Pub Date: 01 June 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

Lisa Duffy has again written another picturesque, heartfelt book that will send you on an emotional journey. I was first drawn to her books because they are set in Massachusetts, where I live. And her descriptions of fictitious towns, Ichabod Island in the case of My Kind of People, are damn near perfect. Reading this book felt like home, like reading about a family that could live down the road from me.

What I loved most about My Kind of People were the cast of characters and how Lisa Duffy gave them all their own storylines and problems to overcome, yet weaved them all together in a really beautiful and authentic way. Sky especially, was smart and mature beyond her years and rightly confusing about her feelings and emotions throughout the book.

There were a few bits toward the end, some reveals I wish were written with a bit more care, but overall this was a great book that solidified Duffy as an auto-buy author for me.

Young girls, single male parents, good neighbors and friends, and a tight-knit island village all are cast members of this new book. The place has a big a role in the story as the people and kind of made me want to live there, even though set in New England. It's hard to write a review without giving away the plot so I will only say that I think this story will appeal to a wide age group, from young teens to seniors.

I enjoyed this new novel despite feeling like I might have read it before, which isn't possible.

This story about starting over is one of a kind. I thought that it had wonderful depth and the characters were flawed. I thought that this story had a little bit of everything for the reader and the mystery was great. This one was super engaging and was a must read.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Books for the advance of this title in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this book, despite some predictability. The characters are well done. If you strip away everything else, it's about community, what makes a family and love.

Characters were appealing but plot was silly and predictable. I wont use spoilers but really? Skyes reaction to all of it at the end? Hello?

Nice book about family secrets and drama. I wanted to love it but I found some parts slow moving. The book had a nice ending but I struggled to finish it.