4.5 stars rounded up.

This book is not only well written but is also thoroughly interesting as it examines 1975 life in a rural Idaho town that is predominately Mormon.

Olivia Hawker explores family, identity, community, love, emotional/mental abuse, and finding oneself. As I read, I felt like I was an observer from above, watching as the characters’ lives unfolded and yet finding myself unknowingly drawn into their story, getting caught up in their everyday drama.

In addition to The Ragged Edge of Night, also by Hawker, I will be recommending this book. I’ve yet to read One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow but it has been on my TBR list for a while now. This book does have some mild language and implied sex but nothing more than a kiss here and there.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book was just okay for me. A very slow burn, but not in the best way. It took me a while to slog through the first half of the book, but I did enjoy the second half once the story developed a bit. The writing is very atmospheric and the characters well developed.

Olivia Hawker is a new author to me, but I will definitely be seeking out and reading her previous novels. This one was wonderful and so powerful.
With thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced readers' copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia Hawker is one of my absolute favorite authors when it comes to beautifully written, immersive historical fiction.
The Rise of Light focuses on a Mormon family in Idaho, fraught with tension due to its patriarch, Gad Rigby, and his desire to be in control at all times. While his middle children, twin 19 year old sons, are the picture of the ideal Mormon men, his eldest son, Aran, and youngest child, a daughter named Tamsin, constantly challenge him. Aran and Tamsin struggle with their own identities, both in their town and with their faith. Then an outsider and convert to their faith, Linda, enters their town and the picture - falling for Aran and befriending Tamsin - and changes the courses of their lives in ways great and small.
Aran is an artist and the descriptive writing of both the scenery and his art is phenomenal. I felt like I was there. But there is not just beautiful imagery, the characters are fully developed, interesting, flawed - everything I love to see. The plot kept me interested and reading quickly, without it feeling rushed. I’m glad I have this one preordered - I can’t wait to add it to my shelves next to her others.

Peace within

A community , a religion, and a dysfunctional family living in denial. An abusive father, very controlling almost destroys the family.

A son tortured by his religious belief, or lack of, torn over his need for independence and his love for his father.
A daughter that learns the price of standing up to her father and disobeying him, and a wife that retreads further and further away into herself.

A young woman that moves to the small community to find peace and finds anything but. She is different and does not fit in or conform to the strict rules of the church and the community.

When she falls in love with the oldest son and he moves out of the family home the father becomes enraged and causes problems for his son’s art career. As he continues in his anger he loses his daughter as well.

It takes an act of God, a natural disaster to bring this family back together.

I like the way the children look to each other and how the community rallies around in time of need. This was a good lesson in faith and caring.

To let your children live a happy life you must let them make choices for themselves. The job of a parent is to guide their children in faith a teach them to make good choices, not to plan, organize or live their lives for them.

It was a good story, I would recommend it.

Thanks to Olivia Hawker, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy for my honest review.

Another different kind of story from Hawker that has all the feels. I love her use of words for light and sounds and all the connections they make; and in this novel, she captures both but from a human point of view - the light and sounds of the heart, the mind, and how both affect the soul. I think most readers of faith will identify with the desperation in a man/woman to feel okay, to be enough, Most women always feel this way, but religion tends to amplify this need, because now not only do we "have to" be enough for other people; we also have to be enough for God.
What Hawker manages to do, though, is challenge that. She manages to strip away all of the formulas and rules we've made up along the way and pull us back to what matters, what's true - the heart of family for us all, and the heart of God rather than the unnecessary reach for him in others. Because what is faith if we cannot accept that everything has already been done for us? And all we can do is accept our own humanity, perhaps even laugh at it, and open our hearts and plug in to the silver cord of heart and light that is freely given.
That's what this book is. A grand reconnection to all we really long for so we can be whole.

4.5 stars, rounded up
This book is perfect for those that love a good family drama. The Rigby family is hard core Mormon. Or at least the parents are. Two of the four kids, Aran and Tamsin, are trying to sort out what they believe.
The book covers expectations, obligations, obedience and how it all ties in with their religion. I loved how Hawker delves into the search for meaning, to finding a place where one belongs. Mormonism is one of those religions I’ve never truly understood. It doesn’t come off well in this book. The misogyny of the religion (at least as practiced in this town) is horrendous. I would have run screaming from that town never to return.
The characters are wonderfully in depth and nuanced. The father, Gad, has the same artistic talents as his son Aran but worries they are somehow wrong, too feminine. He would be an easy man to hate, which makes his children’s attempts to keep their love for him alive all the more heartrending. Both Tamsin and Aran want more in life than what is being offered to them. The chapters alternate between the characters, which worked well for me as we got to see what each of them were thinking. She uses Linda, a newcomer and true outsider to the community, as a way for the reader to see the community in an unbiased way, especially the way opinions are formed and never revised.
The writing is fantastic. I could picture the Idaho landscape, the flatness, the colors. Aran is an artist and Hawker does a great job talking about how he creates art and the pleasure it gives not just him, but several others.
Hawker knows of what she writes, as she grew up in a traditional Latter Day Saints family that had ties to Rexburg. And in a weird twist, the one thing in the book that I felt might be a tad unbelievable actually happened.
At times, I felt the book could have been pared down a little, that a better editing job could have made it more taut. For that reason, I can’t give it a full five stars. But it is definitely an interesting, well done story that I have no trouble heartily recommending. This is another book that would make a great book club selection.
My thanks to netgalley and Lake Union for an advance copy of this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read The Rise Of Light by Olivia Hawker.
I did enjoy this story about a Mormon family, in a small town in the United States. Gad's family consists of his wife, three sons and one daughter. His oldest son, Aran, he wants him to take over the family sign business. Aran wants to be an artist. His mother knows of his art. So does his sister, Tamsin. His two younger brothers, tried to please their father. Gad was beyond strict! He was mean and controlling. Tamsin, was a free spirit! She knew what she wanted. She wanted to go to university or college. Her father wanted her to marry at 19 and have babies. So Gad was always at odds with Aran and Tamsin- he would have been livid if he knew their secret.
Then Linda, an outsider comes along. Both Aran and Tamsin befriend her.
Then all hell fire lets loose. I really enjoyed this book. The author clearly knew Mormon history, and what it is like for children growing up in a strict, loveless family. You teach what you know. Gad gave up his dream, and so should Aran. No school for Tamsin. or her dreams. I give this 4 out of 5.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

1975, Aran Rigby his sister Tamsin long with their two brothers are locked in orbit around their emotionally abusive father and a cult-like fear controlling religion.

The writing is okay and the characters interesting enough but I wasn't feeling the story.

2.75☆

The author was raised in a Mormon community, and her knowledge of the religion and culture came through in this novel. The reader is really immersed in it, for better or worse. I like how the characters varied in their devotion to the church and in their reactions to the culture. (If you’re likely to be upset by a negative portrayal of Mormonism, then this is probably a book you won't enjoy!)

The relationship between brother and sister, Aran and Tamsin, was intriguing and beautifully handled. I also loved how Hawker described paintings throughout the novel. We could appreciate the art, even though we couldn’t see it. As in Hawker’s earlier book that I recently finished, One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, her descriptions of the natural world are powerful. Hawker is skilled at painting pictures with words.

The multiple points of view was used to good effect too. It was good to see inside the mind of the controlling, abusive father, Gad, and to be able to contrast it with how his family saw him from the outside. It’s tragic how many men, throughout history, have denied themselves the full range of human emotions. How much suffering could have been avoided if men were allowed — by themselves, by their parents, by their cultures — to feel ‘soft’ or ‘feminine’ emotions?

As with Blackbird, I found the ending satisfying. And it will have you anxiously turning pages to find out how everything turns out.

The biggest negative for me was that I sometimes felt a little impatient with some of the characters. I wanted them to pull themselves together already. But this is likely a problem only if you're afflicted with chronic impatience like me, haha!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy.

Complicated Yet Beautiful. Hawker has a way of painting pictures with words that are utterly beautiful, and yet also utterly ugly at the same time. Ultimately, this book reads like a more evocative, more painting quality version of the somewhat similar story David Duchovny created in Truly Like Lightning, even as it seems that both authors were working on these works for quite a number of years. Particularly in their showing of the worse sides of Mormon life, complete with overbearing and hypocritical fathers, this reads almost like as much an attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as the character study that it is. And yet, again, the way Hawker executes it here is utterly beautiful in its prose and storytelling. Hawker sucks you in, weaving these plot threads near and around each other before bringing them all together to grand effect. Ultimately the biggest quibble with this entire effort isn't Hawker's writing, but the actual description of the book - which leads one to believe certain aspects arguably happen sooner than they do. Indeed, Linda becoming "privy to a secret Aran and Tamsin share that could dismantle everything everyone holds dear" happens quite late (later than 80%, maybe even closer to the 90% mark), though again, the actual execution here is quite solid and indeed allows the book to end in surprising ways that were only very subtly hinted at much earlier. Even Aran and Lucy getting together to begin with seems to happen much later in the tale than the description seems to indicate, though that relationship *is* particularly well developed. Ultimately this is a book that Mormons likely won't like, people with various misconceptions about Mormonism will probably tout, but one that tells a remarkable tale in the end. Recommended.

Having previously enjoyed The Ragged Edge of Night by this author, I was excited to read this one. The author writes beautifully descriptive paragraphs about the landscape and her insights into the family relationships are insightful. Unfortunately, I just found it a repetitive slog and I never found myself immersed in the story.

Olivia Hawker did it again - One for the Blackbird was my favorite book in 2020 and I'm so glad that The Rise of Light hit me the same way. She writes with such depth of knowledge and passion it's hard to not get swept up in the sweeping storylines.

Just finished this book and I loved it! It was a great mix of a dysfunctional family and religion’s influence, both good and bad. Thank you Netgalley for opportunity to read this for honest review.

First let me say that I was completely ready to give this book three stars. To me it started out strong but then started dragging a bit. I almost gave up on it. But I'm glad I didn't. The last third of the book seemed to pull me back in and made me want to know what was going to happen to this family. I'm not a religious person nor am I one who doesn't believe in things.

I just have a problem with organized religion. Though I don't knock it. If it's your thing then it must be right in some ways. This book is about one religion that I always found a bit to out there. Only in the sense that what I always knew of Mormons was they had multiple wives. Tons of children and just a strange belief. My opinion and not saying it's right.

I really like the two main characters, Aran and his sister, Tamsin. I detested their parents. Both but mostly the dad. The other characters were just extras in a sense. I did like Linda. She was good for Aran and for Tamsin too. She was a strong young woman from out of town.

The people in this town shunned Aran because of lies spread by another supposedly religious young man. I can only assume that he was jealous of Aran to do such a thing. Or maybe threatened in some way. The whole point is from the religious aspect I would think that would be a big sin. I suppose it is and I think it was horrible. But in all religions that I know about there is so much that is wrong yet they sure do love to judge others.

I would feel horrible for Aran and Tamsin's dad, Gad. First let me say I do not like his name. I kept wanting to call him God and he was in now way God. He was a horrible father yet I felt like he was troubled is many ways. Maybe broken or something. Just when I would have hope that he could be a good and honest man he would do or say something else to hurt one of his children and I would despise him all over again. I ended up kind of liking him and their mother. But as a whole I didn't like either. Him for his meanness and her for letting it happen.

This book is good. Well written and likable. It's a story of a family who face lots of ups and downs. A dad who seems to hate his oldest child and literally treats him as an outcast. Even to the point of stealing from him in many ways. Parts of this book were a bit disturbing at first. The painting scenes between the brother and sister. But after thinking about it and reading more I understood. It was not bad. It was not ugly or morbid or sick. It was art. Pure and simple. Beautiful art.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #OliviaHawker, #LakeUnionPublishing for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

4/5 stars. I recommend you read this one. It is good. It is one that will make you stop and think.

Olivia Hawker is an amazing writer! She uses words so effectively that you just get caught up in her description of the every day - weather, light, birds, everything. This book is a wonderful addition to her growing list of excellent books. The story was set in 1975, when I was about Tamsin’s age, but the attitudes and culture felt more like the 1960’s - even Linda who comes from Seattle did not seem that enlightened. I really love the way the author gives the reader insight into the characters inner thoughts, where you find that Gad is not nearly as soulless as he wants to appear. And while other reviewers commented on how terrible Gad was, the reality is, he was like most parents trying to do what he BELIEVES is best for his children, while simultaneously being a complete tyrant. You have to love Arletta who quietly works to counteract this cruelty and maintain her sanity. I am notorious for skipping pages (or even chapters) in books where the prose is just too flowery and descriptive but as with her other books, I read every single word and loved each one. The climax of the story is a little contrived and everything gets nicely wrapped up - but I don’t know how else it could have ended. Definitely a book to share with other readers who love a well written story.

I loved Ragged Edge of Night and One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow so I had high hopes and high expectations for this book. Hawker delivered. I couldn’t put it down and although I had a few ideas of how it would end, the book was captivating throughout.

Hawker is emerging as my favorite author. Her books are easy to read while being beautifully descriptive.

This historical fiction family drama tells the story of a Mormon family in rural Idaho in the 1970s. The characters struggle with their faith and roles as they experience life cycle events and a changing world. Overall this book held my interest, although the characters seemed rather contrived and their relationships at times highly disturbing. The ending was hopeful although a bit contrived. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC

This was a difficult book for me to read. The father was overbearing and strict. His children were afraid of him. There was not much joy in the household and I could not enjoy the story. I usually enjoy reading about different times, different religions and different cultures but in this case, the darkness detracted from my interest. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The world was nothing any man can control

What did it mean if the world called to him with endless arrays of color and light?

For me, these two quotes sum up this marvellous novel.
Gad Rigby might not be able to control the world, but he will do everything he can to control his family. And added to his rigid expectations, his children - now young adults - must deal with the expectations and judgement of the staunchly Mormon town where they live.
Linda Duff actively seeks out the rigidity and order of the Mormon religion, believing that a faithful Mormon family of her own will give her stability lacking in her own upbringing. But her arrival upsets the balance, not only of the Rigby family, but of the town itself, which regards her with suspicion as an outsider and potential bad influence.
Aran, Gad's oldest son, is torn between his art and the expectations placed on him by his father and the church. He wants to paint, but he also clings to the security and safety his family and religion give him. His sister Tamsin, younger, maybe braver, or maybe just more aware that as a girl the constraints placed on her will be harsher than those placed on her brothers, is much more of a rebel.
And Linda's arrival acts as a catalyst, setting things in motion that will mean the family is never the same.
Descriptions of light run throughout the novel without being intrusive. The scenery and the town itself become as necessary as the characters, especially as the novel draws to its conclusion.
Olivia Hawker is a new author to me, but I will definitely be seeking out and reading her previous novels. This one was wonderful.
With thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced readers' copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.