A book set in Scotland? Sign me up please.. this book was incredible and so much more joyful than I thought it was. It was super entertaining and I had a blast reading it!

This book is about McComb's family history, went through 6 generations. The Scottish family immigrant from Scotland to Ireland then to USA.
The book is quick read, and quite interesting. But The historical parts did not give me enough information to learn more about Scottish or McComb. No character standup or impressive, they are just plain. Writing is OK.
I don't like the present story. Doug fall in love with Suzy too fast, and I do not feel the chemical between them.
3 Stars

This novel travels through multiple generations as Douglas McCombs researches his ancestors. I loved the family tree in the beginning of this novel as it was a nice visualization of the overall flow of the story as our main character looks at the furthest generation and slowly transitions down the line until he gets to his closer ancestors.
A Reason to Be, lives up to its title as the characters in the story (both past and present) find their reason to be. This can be anything from your romantic partner, your career, a hobby – essentially it is anything that motivates you to get up every day (it can be one or multiple). For Douglas, his reason to be used to be his wife and now that she’s gone he now has to discover if it’s possible to move forward and find another reason to be.
Our protagonist is Douglas McCombs who is a seventy year-old inventor who creates mostly medical equipment. His wife Hope has passed away from dementia. He was her sole caregiver and devoted over the past five years to trying to ensure her best survival. After she passes, he is now alone to deal with his grief and depression. For months after her death, he can barely muster the strength to get out of bed and his friend (who he thinks of as a son), Mark comes to try and assist Douglas move forward. He convinces Douglas to do small things, such as taking a walk, as he tries to persuade him to pick-up on his old passion of genealogy. While they are in front of the library, they meet a literary researcher, Suzy, who helps Douglas find out about his past. He delves into his family’s history to not only learn more about the past, but how it has affected his present and possible future.
The chapters alternate between the past and present. Our present timeline moves along as we follow along Douglas and his journey to find out who his family used to be and how it’s helped shape who he is. Our past portions of the story are devoted one chapter per generation in a chronological order. We start with the fourth Great-grandfather of Douglas McCombs and move down the line to his father where we also get a glimpse into Douglas’ childhood through the eyes of his father. As we return to the present after each ancestor’s chapter, we see Douglas process who these men were and how he inherited traits from multiple members.
This novel delves into multiple themes of love, family, and friendship. Along his journey, Douglas discovers the meaning of each and how it can affect his life without him even realizing it. Each of those affect him in a different way that is revealed as you read through the chapters. Overall, it does make the reader want to dive into their own ancestry to find out how who they are today relates to those found in their past. It’s an interesting concept to explore why someone is the way they are and how who we are could potentially affect the future.
I honestly loved every page of this book as each ancestor and every chapter played its part. There was just enough detail and imagery to complete the scenery and tones. When the character were happy, you were able to interpret that without the author having to explicitly mention it (same with other emotions as well). The relationship between Suzy and Douglas is very natural and relatable as they form a great bond through their love of history. With that initial foundation, they explored what else they had in common and how they could form a partnership outside of the library. It’s a very well-written relationship as each character stays true to themselves while also growing together and as individuals.

I chose to read A Reason to Be for several reasons, two being I majored in history and continue to read heavily in the area, and I dabble in our family's genealogy, which is also 100% Scotch Irish. I agree with one commentator who said it was a mash up between the movies “Braveheart” and “Love, Actually”. In modern day, widower Douglas, meets Suzy, a research librarian who specializes in genealogy, and this resurrects his interest in the McCombs family history. The plot has a second timeline which traces the origins of the McCombs Clan in Scotland and Ireland, and their immigration to the colonies. The events in Scotland and Ireland read like diary entries with one event after another with little character development, while the contemporary story line explored the theme of finding a reason to live, with a bit more character development and description. I feel this would be a rewarding read for those in the McCombs Clan, but it wasn't the book I wanted it to be.

What initially drew me to this book was the Scottish history and reference to genealogy, both favorites of mine. This story is told in multiple timelines of the McComb family starting with modern-day Douglas McComb whose wife has died of Alzheimer’s leaving him anchorless, and clawing his way out of endless grief he takes on researching his family history as a way to bring himself back to life. It doesn’t hurt that a fascinating librarian, Suzy Hamilton, has awoken his mind and desires.

To be honest, as much as I enjoy Scottish history, there were parts of this that were overwhelming and seemed to drag, but then suddenly it would get interesting and I’d be captivated again. At first, when Douglas quickly came out of his grief and became interested in Suzy, I was not happy, but then as the story unfolded, I realized that everything is not always as it seems. All in all, it was a solid story about love, family, devotion, loyalty, and living for yourself, again. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read. I gave it three solid stars.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into romance stories and literary fiction however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different.

A Reason to Be is a story about a man who while researching his family's Scottish roots, while to learns how to live (and love) again. While I really enjoyed the Scottish history parts, a few of the letters were so long I skipped over most of what was written. With that said, the story is really well researched. I was familiar with several of the events and he really hit the tone of them. The problem for me was that I liked the history parts so much, that I found the modern-day characters kind of boring. I wanted to spend more time in the past following his relatives through their trials and tribulations. I think to have one chapter in the past, the next in the future, and so on, was interesting and made the book fly by.

First sentence from chapter one: As a sunbeam broke through the crack in the floor-length windows of his Fifth Avenue brownstone, falling in a long, bright line across his bed, Douglas McCombs turned away and pulled the comforter up over his head. He was in no mood for such a glaring display of optimism. The nerve of the sun, daring to rise on yet another day.

Premise/plot: Douglas McCombs stars in Norman McCombs' A Reason To Be. Can this seventy-year-old man suffering from grief and depression find...a reason to be. For months he's barely-barely-barely had the will to get out of bed let alone live life. But after bumping--literally--into a librarian, he may just have an opportunity to live life again. He's equally interested in the lovely librarian, Suzy, AND doing genealogical research on the McCombs. The chapters alternate between the present and the past. His ancestors have chapters. One chapter per generation.

My thoughts: I knew this one would be a good match for me. It stars an older protagonist. One who has gone through a lot for years--care-taking for his wife suffering from dementia. He has an interest in family history and genealogy. He has an interest in a librarian. Both are allowed the opportunity to find love later in life and get second chances. The alternating chapters was great!!! What an incredible and creative idea. I am sure there are many, many, many genealogists who wish they were that creative and talented. I am sure the past has stories to tell us. But more often than not--it's not possible to find fully-fleshed stories in our family trees.

There is something achingly human about this one. I did get hooked.

A Reason to Be is a romance and family saga that alternates between modern-day New York City and the narrator’s genealogy dating back from the time of Scottish clan warfare, through the American Colonies and the War of 1812, and on to Depression. Douglas and Suzy meet in the New York Public Library after Douglas’s wife has died and he finally decides it’s time to get out of his house and see the real world again. He finds Suzy at the research desk, where she helps him trace his Scottish roots. Their story gets intertwined with Douglas’s family history and Suzy’s past as they finally decide that their new relationship late in life will be better than the ones that came before.
While this story is billed as a novel, it’s clearly. This is a story of the author’s family, and as such, he has an interest in telling it, which is obvious in his passion for the subject. The modern day love story gets a little too sentimental and saccharine for my taste and wasn’t nearly as interesting to me as the historical stories the author is telling. The book opens with the the narrator’s ancestors in 15th century Scotland, in the middle of a clan uprising. It’s gripping stuff with vivid details. It feels very much like a well-researched historical novel. The subsequent family stories are equally well researched, I actually looked them up to see how much of them were true—turns out a lot. Obviously, the details of the scenes are fictional, but the timeline and settings are all true to life. The McCombs family has a history of courage, warfare, treachery, and patriotism (although not always to the same side of the battle). As a family history buff myself, I found these stories very engaging and quick, like reading a compilation of short stories, with enough detail to let you get to know the characters. The author manages to pull these threads together, since it’s in essence a novel of a man researching his family history. As much as I felt I got to know the earlier ancestors of the family and really grow to appreciate their hardships and successes, I didn’t feel quite as invested in the modern-day characters of Douglas and Suzy. There was so much talk of the couple’s past mistakes, and whether they could move past them together, when really what I wanted to say was “gah, get over it and move on.” Their story was sweet and I felt glad they were happy together, but that was about the extent of my emotion for them. At only a couple hundred pages, the novel was a quick read about a really interesting family.

As a fellow genealogy enthusiast, I really enjoyed this story. I loved the plot of discovering family genealogy and investigating family traits that can be carried on from generation to generation. I also liked how the main character was able to look back retrospectively, so that he had a better understanding of his father and his father's ancestors. In doing so it made him discover what his father was really like. I also enjoyed the romance that occurs between Douglas and Suzy. The interracial aspect is perfectly timed for the that we currently live in. I also enjoyed that it was an older person relationship. A Reason to Be is a cozy, slow burn of a book that made me want to just curl up with it and a cup of coffee and read. I definitely recommend it.

I would like to thank Norman McCombs, Greenleaf Book Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in four a fair and honest review.