I had not read the book that this is a prequel for so I didn't know Arthur's story in any way. I found this to be an interesting coming of age story set in the 50s. It's important to remember the setting when you're reading because it drives the family dynamics. A good read.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

3.5 rounded up
If you fell in love with Arthur in [book:The Story of Arthur Truluv|32918898] like I did, you won’t want to miss this one. It’s about Arthur’s earlier years beginning when he is 16 and we come to know that even as a teenager he was kind and loving. It’s an easy read, and at times pretty light. Yet Berg doesn’t shy away from the not so easy realities of life - a not so perfect family, dysfunctional one could easily say, alcoholism, depression, loneliness, grief. There are also some bright spots - a wonderful relationship between two brothers different as night and day, but bonded by their love for each other, the beauty of unexpected friendships, Arthur’s connection to nature, his undying love for Nola. While Arthur is an endearing character, so kind, so sweet, seemingly too good to be true , how good it is for the soul to believe there are some truly good people . 3.5 rounded up because it kept me reading and was just what I needed right now. I’ve have not been fully engaged on Goodreads for personal reasons and in a huge reading slump . What better way to try to pull myself out than to read with my long time Goodreads friend and reading buddy Diane .

I received a copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.

I have loved everything I've read by Elizabeth Berg and was so happy to receive an ARC of Earth's the Right Place for Love from NetGalley - thank you.

Arthur (Truluv) Moses is such a great character. I loved having the opportunity to return to Mason, Missouri to meet him as a 16-year-old boy in this wonderful coming of age book. Arthur's relationship with his brother and mother were very touching And I loved the back story of how he met his true love, Nola. The book took place in 1947, which seems to me like a time of innocence. Arthur was a very naive teenager, but during these formative years, we learned how he came to be the kind and compassionate man that we met in the Story of Arthur Truluv. The stories of how Arthur developed friendships with some of the neighborhood women he did work for was very endearing. This book is about friendship, acceptance, overcoming adversity, and mostly about love!

While I was familiar with the author’s name, this is the first of her books I’ve read. It’s setting in Missouri begins in the late forties. A coming of age saga following two teenage brothers Arthur and Frank. There are many time period appropriate mind sets. Mom’s a housewife, dad works, drinks, disciplines harshly and you don’t talk about any of it. The story flows well and is a quick read. Robert Frost’s poem “Birches” is a theme woven beautifully throughout. Frank’s infatuated with his teacher while Arthur’s heart is lost to Nola from a very young age. The neighbor, Mrs. Crawford, with her rose garden and wisdom imparted to Arthur was a favorite character. It was an enjoyable story with some sad parts and hope for romantics.
The digital advance reader copy of “Earth’s the Right Place for Love” by Elizabeth Berg published by Random House was provided to me by NetGalley. Anticipated publication date is March 21, 2023. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

This was a well written coming-of-age story about Arthur. Family, friendships, first love, and the tragedy that life can throw at you run through the pages of this book. When starting, I didn't realize it was a prequel. It was a good book and I'd like to read The Story of Arthur Truluv one day.

I read The Story of Arthur Truluv back in 2017 and I loved the book and fell a little bit in love with Arthur. It was a true “feel good” story.

Now we have the prequel to the original. In this book, we meet Arthur, a young schoolboy who has fallen in love with a girl called Nola. But Nola is not interested. We all know what the outcome will be, but we have no idea how we’ll get there.

This is a sweet story. Sometimes a bit too much. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. The things that made me love Arthur in the first book, bothered me in this book. He is too accepting of everything, too complacent. He is too good of a person.

But, I'm glad I read it. It was a fast and easy read. These days there is so much strife and misery world, day after day. This book is a nice escape from reality. And, I was happy to learn the story of Arthur and Nola.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

Oh.. that sweet man Arthur Moses from the story Arthur Truluv, was just as sweet as a kid growing up in the same town we found him in, in the first novel.
A great son, brother, friend and neighbor he was.. just so endearing
Truly a joy meeting Arthur here in his younger years and his love blossoming for his Nola.
A very sweet read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5294026864 House Publishing Group - Random House for the ARC!

I received an Advanced Reader copy from Netgalley for my honest review. Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors. I have enjoyed every story she has written. This was no exception! It is a prequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv. Now I think I should read it again. First love…. Is there a better thing? Arthur’s love is unrequited, yet a true friendship blooms with Nola. Over many years, through life’s tragedies and joys, they remain friends. From high school, through jobs, moving, and becoming a homeowner, the strength of their friendship remains. Reflecting on being 16, school cliques, romance, dating, and all the possibilities that are ahead. Did your dreams become reality? I gave the story 5 stars for all the emotions and memories it evokes.

EARTH’S THE RIGHT PLACE FOR LOVE by Elizabeth Berg is a heartwarming story of love, loss and second chances that captured my heart from the very beginning. I must be one of the few people who never read Berg’s THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV when it came out in 2017, but I remedied that as soon as I finished this book. The new book goes back to Arthur’s teen years in the 1950s in the small town of Mason, Missouri. Arthur is a shy, unathletic boy who makes friends with Nola, a beautiful and popular girl in school. He wants her to be more than a friend, but Nola actually has a crush on Arthur’s older brother, Frank. Frank’s interests lie elsewhere, so he advises Arthur how he can make Nola want him. But a horrific tragedy shatters the Moses family and changes their lives and the lives of those around them forever. Arthur is wonderfully-portrayed as a kind and caring soul even as a young man. His enduring love of nature, his hometown and Nola is moving to behold. The strong relationship between Arthur and Frank was also endearing. This book is loaded with warmth, wisdom and nostalgia and it left me with a smile and a happy heart. I enjoyed this inspirational and uplifting story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

This book is the prequel to “The Story of Arthur Truluv.” However, it can also be read as a stand-alone, since it tells how Arthur and Nola meet as teenagers. It is a sweet story of how two people become friends without realizing how important they are to each other, and how much they have become a part of each other’s lives.

As they help each other through their teenage years, through family tragedies, and into their young adult years, Nola and Arthur are able to talk about anything to each other. They are both trying to find something, and that “something” happens to be each other.

This is a lovely feel-good story, and I highly recommend it!

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Elizabeth Berg, and Random House for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

This charming, warm, emotional coming-of-age story and romance takes place in 1947 Missouri, when times seemed simpler, and society found itself on the rebound from WWII. Arthur, a shy, unconfident, kind, and compassionate 16-year-old, grows up in the long shadow of his dashing, charming, athletic, and intellectual older brother Frank, a high school senior and aspiring writer. The boys share a room and share confidences at night, and Arthur relies on Frank as his best and perhaps only friend. Arthur has a deep crush on one of the it-girls in his class, Nola, who in turn has a crush on Frank, who in turn is falling in love with his young English teacher Mary. Much of the book centers on sorting out this triangulation.

But darkness also rips through this novel as a powerful underbelly to its small town idyllic, nothing-much-happens-here surface. Their house is far from happy, as their war veteran father fights his demons. The father often drinks to excess, picks fights at bars, and at home takes out his frustrations by beating on Frank. Their mother stands by, not intervening. A tornado destructively rips through town, much like their father’s out of control emotions. Frank’s affair with Mary has unexpected, deep complications.

Ultimately, love conquers all and indeed Earth seems like a perfect place to nurture love. The warm, folksy lessons of this book stay with you long after you finish reading.


Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

"Earth's the Right Place for Love" by Elizabeth Berg is a lovely romance about two brothers and the girls they love. I found the story to be slow moving and had some trouble initially connecting with the characters but overall, I'm glad I stuck with it to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Berg’s books have been hit or Miss for me over the years. I was looking forward to a hit with this new one. Sadly it just was a bit slow and the setting in the 50s not really doing much for my tastes. I do appreciate NetGalley for the ARC. Three stars.

What a beautiful heart-warming story this is! It begins in Mason, Missouri in 1947 with brothers Arthur 16 and Frank 18 trying to navigate growing up in a small town with a war veteran father who drinks too much and has a problem holding a job. Frank is athletic and handsome with all the girls vying for his attention while Arthur is not athletic, is shy and more into nature. Nola McCallum is a cheerleader, beautiful, very popular and interested in Frank. Nola and Arthur become friends but Arthur would like to be more than friends. This is such a touching, wonderful story that I could not put down.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this beautiful story that I loved.

As an Elizabeth Berg fan I was delighted to discover the back story of Arthur Moses from Arthur Trulove. A warm and tender story of two people finding each other.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group for an advance copy of this fiction set in the past featuring characters from Elizabeth Berg's previous works.

For writers it must be a gift to complete a book featuring a character that is created totally from the ether, to have that particular work of fiction complete and go, no there is more here. This character refuses to stop living even though the book is closed, the story over. There is life here, truths that must be written about. How did this character get to this point. This character's story is not done yet, and maybe never will be. Earth's the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg is one of those books, going back in time to the youth of one of Berg's best loved characters, exploring his youth, dreams tribulations and what made him so memorable and a strong character.

Arthur Moses has a father who drinks to much, a mother trying to keep it together, and a brother who seems to be sailing through life, popular in the ways that Arthur is not. Arthur has his books, his appreciation of nature and a new friend in a young lady named Nola. As he prepares to share his thoughts with her, Nola tells him that she has a crush on someone, and that is his brother Frank. Tragedy strikes and soon Arthur is lost in a world that suddenly doesn't make sense. Arthur tries helping others in town, lonely and lost like he is, and slowly starts to become the man he one day will be.

This book serves as a prequel to Berg's The Story of Arthur Truluv, but one really doesn't have to have read that to enjoy this, though one should as it is also a grand read. Elizabeth Berg has a way of creating characters that not only keep the reader enthralled, but stay with the reader long after the book has been shelved. Everyone even the smallest character is well thought out speaks and sounds real, and could be a main character in another book. Berg has a gift for making a story that sounds so simple when sharing it, have so many levels, so many things going on, and just full of life. There are lines that once read have to be read again because they sum up so much of what the characters are going through. A really well done, engaging novel.

Berg is an author that is always consistently good. Plots, characters, emotions, the readers interest, never a wasted word, or a plot line that just goes no where. For fans of Elizabeth Strout, especially the Lucy Barton books.

Another lovely story from Elizabeth Berg. Set in the 1950s, small town Mason, Missouri, we discover the young Arthur, gawky, socially inept. He is in love with beautiful Nola, who is madly in love with Arthur's older brother, Frank. Nola only sees Arthur as a friend. It's a small town, so everyone knows you, your family, your parents. The teachers at school know your entire family. A soda fountain date is a big deal.

The boys' father, a war veteran, has a drinking problem and can't seem to face the realities of the world. Frank is more able to avoid Dad than Arthur is. Tragedy strikes the family and Arthur thinks that he can't go on. But life does go on, and how Arthur learns to deal with the tragedy.

This was such a sweet look at the man child who grew up to become Arthur Truluv.

Love doesn’t always make much sense, and it is as likely to bring pain as it is joy….in the end, though, it’s generally well worth the struggle.

A quiet young boy named Arthur is growing up in a small Missouri town in the 1950’s. He isn’t at all like his athletic, popular big brother Frank, whom he idolizes. He is happiest when he is learning about or looking at the natural world, where no one expects him to know the right thing to say or do. His dad is quick to anger, and generally takes his frustrations out on Frank. His mother tries her best to keep everything on an even keel, but isn’t always successful. Arthur does odd jobs for people in town to make money for himself and his family….helping a widow do work around the house, helping a young wife tend to her rose garden, even sweeping up in a beauty salon. But, as boys often do, Arthur falls in love. Nola is the most beautiful and most popular girl in the glass, and Arthur has given her his heart completely. When he finally summons up the courage to speak to her, he finds out that she too has a crush….on his brother, Frank, whose own heart is already taken by another. Nola and Arthur become friends, and he sets out to make her see that he is the one she should look to for love.

Reading an Elizabeth Berg novel is, for me, like sitting down and chatting with strangers who quickly become new friends. More than once, I’ve suspected that she somehow found a copy of my adolescent diary and used its entries as a template for a character. (In Earth’s the Right Place for Love, I guess it could have been my younger brother’s diary into which she peeked,). However Ms Berg does it, she manages to create wonderful, realistic snapshots of time peopled by characters who you either feel you have met before or are delighted to have finally made their acquaintance, and that is again the case in this novel . Berg fans may recognize young Arthur, who grows up to be a character in a previous novel, The Story of Arthur Truluv, but it is by no means necessary to have read that earlier novel to enjoy this one. I strongly suspect that if you haven’t, though, by the time you finish this new book you will be racing to grab a copy of the earlier one!

If by some chance you have yet to read one of Elizabeth Berg’s novels, I wholeheartedly suggest that you do so . Those who appreciate gifted storytelling, are in for a real treat with any of her novels. Fans of Elizabeth Strout, Adriana Trigiani, Anne Tyler, or Sue Miller, you will certainly enjoy Ms Berg as well. Grab a cup of tea of a mug of hot chocolate, find a comfortable perch, and give yourself the gift of a few hours in Arthur Moses’ world.

Elizabeth Berg writes an exquisite historical coming of age and family drama, full of warmth, set in 1947, a period where great changes are set to take place, and that immerses the reader in the small town community of Mason, Missouri, when the wonderful, good and gentle inward looking Arthur Moses is 16 years old, someone no-one could fail to adore. There are family tensions with their father, a war veteran with a drink problem, is abusive and all too likely to use his fists, and despite being such different people, he has a close and tight relationship with his older brother Frank, who dreams of being a writer and of whom Arthur seeks advice.

Arthur is delighted when the lovely Nola McCollum in his class befriends him, although he desires much more, but Nola is far more interested in Frank, whose interests lie elsewhere. This is a story of family, a community where everybody knows everyone, love, tragedies, loss, loneliness, the strong relationship between brothers, personal development, friendships, and learning to live when life deals you some tough cards. Arthur finds himself swimming in grief after an unexpected family tragedy and it is the natural world that provides him with a route to walk his own path through his pain and sorrow. But what of Nola, will there be any possibility of love there?

This is a brilliantly engaging, human, moving and gripping read that I found captivating and emotionally heart rending, with a terrific cast of characters, painting a picture of a dysfunctional family. We follow the character development of how a kind and forgiving Arthur works out who he is to be. Berg simultaneously provides us with a picture of a significant American historical period. A great novel that I recommend to readers who enjoy historical fiction and family dramas. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

*****Publishing March 21, 2023*****

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Earth's the Right Place for Love is the latest book on Arthur Truluv. It takes you back to when Arthur was a teenager and how he became the man he became in The Story of Arthur Truluv. Even though this book is part of a series, it could be read as stand alone as this my first book by Elizabeth Berg.

This story is from Arthur’s point of view, going back to what life was like for him starting at age 16. Arthur lives in a dysfunctional family, since his Father is always on edge and angry, which stemmed from his alcohol problem. Arthur worked odd jobs that his mother arranged for him on the weekends because the family struggled with money.

Arthur was introverted, smart, and was naive at times. He felt at 16 that people were supposed to have romantic relationships and happiness could come from these relationships, so he pursued the most popular girl at the school, Nola.

His brother Frank was outgoing, popular, and worked at a grocery store, but he was always pushing the limits. Frank ends up having secret romantic relations with his English teacher. Frank was constantly in trouble or butting heads with his father and would often confide in Arthur.

Tragedy strikes the family. How will Arthur cope and carry on in life? This book will have you crying, but will also have you laughing out loud at times. Definitely a page turner to find out Arthur’s fate.

I loved the character development and characters. It showed the dysfunctional aspects, but also the vulnerability Arthur had and how he navigated his life. The bond Arthur had with his brother and mother is what helped him to understand the world around him and helped him to have successful relationships.

This would be a good book for those who are fans of Elizabeth Strout as they have similar writing styles. This would make a good book club pick as this book would lead to many good discussions.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House, I was provided an ARC of Earth's the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.