Maureen by Rachel Joyce is a very unique and thought provoking novel about an older woman whose son has died. She journeys to see a garden where a tribute to her son can be seen. Her journey is one of despair and also quiet comfort. She comes to many personal revelations about her life. This novel reinforces that belief that life is worth living and that strangers are able to assist you in your life journey. Thank you to netgalley, Rachel Joyce and Dial Press Trace for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review..

This was a beautifully written novella and a lovely ending to the Harold Fry trilogy. While Maureen seems prickly at first, once you see her vulnerability and all the people that are kind to her on her journey she becomes endearing. This is a great exploration of motherhood, grief and forgiveness.

Maureen!! How you deserved your own main character treatment. This is a terrific addition to the first two books about Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy. It will not pack as quite a punch as it did without reading the first two books; in fact, something significant would be lost if you read it as a standalone.
Maureen takes her own pilgrimage to help with her lifelong grief over her son's death. She does it as only she can; not like Harold with his meandering and existentialism and and not like Queenie with her demanding sense of purpose while writing her letter. Maureen fumbles, offends others, and begrudgingly accepts help. I'm so happy she received the spotlight she deserves! My gripe is only that her story seemed slight compared to the rich, wholehearted storytelling of the first two books in the series.

Maureen by Rachel Joyce is the 3rd book in the Harold Fry series. I enjoyed revisiting these characters. This time Maureen is taking her own trip by car, not on foot. She encounters some mishaps along the way and learns some important lessons about herself and her situation. Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for an advance copy. Maureen is available now.

If you didn’t enjoy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, then I wouldn’t recommend this one . But if you loved those books and those characters as I did, don’t miss this one, a story focused on Harold’s wife bringing the reader full circle around the lives of these characters. In the lovely preface to the novel, Joyce describes her thought process around the three characters with a metaphor of “the sticky closet door”. Harold and Queenie are given their due and moved through “the sticky closet door” by Joyce and into my heart in the first two books. Maureen in those books was for me a bit of an enigma, but when Joyce decided that she’s entitled to her due, I was compelled to follow her on her own journey ten years after Harold’s .

Maureen, thinks of herself as not a nice person and at times, she’s not. She’s angry at times, sometimes down right nasty, but I mostly saw her as a grieving mother, trying to find a way to go on,a way to cope with her loss. When she discovers that Queenie made a sea side garden and in it a monument to Maureen and Harold’s son David, she knows she has to see it. It turned out to be a gift to a grieving mother, whose journey there allows her to make peace with others, but mostly with herself.

Maureen’s journey unlike Harold’s is not a walk, but a car ride. It’s not as open and inclusive as Harold’s, but a more private, solo venture. Yet, there are a few people that she meets along the way that are kind and generous as Harold encountered ten years earlier. It’s a bit quirky, sad, funny and very moving. Even though its less than two hundred pages, Rachel Joyce manages to get Maureen through that “sticky closet door “ and into my heart. Her imagined interview with Maureen at the end is priceless.

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

Maureen is the third book in a trilogy; The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy come first. Maureen is essentially an unhappy person as the book begins. Nothing brings her joy; she is holding the loss of her son close to her heart and it seems impossible to let joy into her life. Her husband, Harold, seems to be at peace, if not accepting of the loss. Maureen is difficult and judgmental during her long drive to inspect the memorial to her son created by her husband's long dead friend Queenie. She is outraged that it exists and feels a need to see it herself. Along the way her trip is filled with challenges; traffic stops, personal accidents, bad weather. It's a dark story, filled with little light or joy.

I loved the character of Kate - a Bohemian who is long friends with Harold. Harold suggest to Maureen that she make a stop to see her, but Maureen is resistant, until the trip takes longer than she thought and she does need a place to stay for the night. Maureen is cold and curt with Kate, and leaves her home without seeing Kate in the morning. Yet when Maureen meets with trouble and needs someone to call, Kate does come to her rescue. I think that seeing David's memorial, Maureen has an awakening of sorts, and spending a few days with Kate helps her heal a bit more.

Author Rachel Joyce has added a final tale to her series that began with Harold Fry’s walk to his friend Queenie. In MAUREEN, Harold’s wife decides to visit her son in Queenie’s garden and embarks upon a car journey. For those who may have forgotten details of Harold’s son or Queenie’s life, their tales slowly unfold as Maureen’s drive proceeds. This is a delicate tale of loss and grief and pain unanswered for years. I have mixed feelings about how much it adds to the previous two books but it is an excellent novella on its own. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

"Maureen" by Rachel Joyce is tender and reflective novel. An older woman, struggling with the long-ago loss of her son and her aging husband, rediscovering her strength and kindness in the world. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the copy for review. All opinions are my own.

MAUREEN
By Rachel Joyce

Moving
Heartwarming

I enjoyed Maureen even though I didn't read the first two books in the trilogy - worked as a great standalone for me, but I am certain that reading the first two Harold Fry books would be a much rewarding experience. I love the story about grief, loss and forgiveness. I absolutely enjoy books like these whose characters will stay with you long after you read them, that will teach you about life's most important lessons.

Maureen is the moving finale to a trilogy that began with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued in The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. Ms. Joyce's novels are very lyrical - beautifully written. Maureen is about love and loss. Maureen is not a warm or easy character - she is not always likeable - but she is written so well that I could see her underlying feelings and the reasons for her actions. This character study made me think about acceptance and being kind to people even when they do not act appropriately or within your perception of what kind and right might look like. The novel holds loss, mental struggles, but is infused with humor. This is not the type of story or novel that I gravitate to but I am very glad I read it - it reminded me to keep acceptance of our fellow man in my daily life.

Thank you NetGalley and Rachel Joyce for gifting me a copy of Maureen in return for my honest review.

3.5/5

This is the third book in the Harold Fry trilogy. I will admit I have not read the other two so I am missing some very important details and I was lost at points but that was a me problem. If you have read the other two books you will not have that issue.

At the beginning Maureen is a tough character to like at the beginning of this book. As the book progresses and we start to learn about her she started to grow on me. We learn about her childhood and how she grew up which shines a light on how she acts and why. As she remembers she starts to change and see the world and those around her in a different way as her perspectives change.

This was a very quick read about a woman’s journey to find peace. It was also about the kindness of strangers. I loved it

Slowly, slowly the story unravels about a woman’s life, both past and present, during Covid times, and frankly it’s rather depressing. I got one third of the way through and couldn’t go on. The writing itself is fine, but the story is dragging and sad and anti climactic and I really just don’t care to see what happens throughout the remainder.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @prhaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

Synopsis:
Maureen and Harold Fry have settled into a quiet life, but when an unexpected message from the North disturbs their peaceful equilibrium, Maureen realizes that it is now her turn to make a journey. But she is not like her affable, easygoing husband. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets—and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. Maureen has no sense of what she will find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she has to get there.

Thoughts:
This book was beautifully written. I loved how I was instantly drawn into the story even though I had not read the previous books. I want to know! I feel like I have missed so much of Harold and Maureen’s story.

4 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #randomhouse #prhaudio #ltbreaderteam #maureen #racheljoyce

Harold and Maureen Fry are living a comfortable life. Things don’t change much from day to day and Maureen likes that. There are very few surprises and there is a kind of peace to that lifestyle. Harold took an over 600 mile walk with a friend, 10 years ago. It is so long ago that Maureen has almost forgot it. But a note from someone during that walk comes and Maureen feels compelled to travel, to find some answers. Only thing is, is that Maureen doesn’t like these types of trips. She is nothing like her husband. He gets along with everyone and he is easygoing. Maureen is more rigid. But she decides she will push through her hesitations and she starts the journey. As you would expect, it doesn’t start out perfectly but as the journey continues Maureen finds a sense of peace. From the people she meets, to the mistakes she makes driving and the thoughts she thinks while she is a lone, Maureen comes to terms with life, death and the rest of her life. This was a wonderfully written book. I had read the other two books in the series and thought this was a great addition. The author has a way of telling a story, that is unique. You really do feel like you know the characters. This was a 4 star read for me. I want to thank Netgalley & Rachel Joyce for my copy of Maureen for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book.

A lovely book - it was a pleasure to spend time in the company of Harold's wife. No great heroics, just a simple, relatable tale.

Maureen by Rachel Joyce is a short read but full of life and meaning. It is the continuation of her Harold Fry novels, which I have never read. I still found the story quite good and enjoyed meeting Maureen, Harold’s wife of fifty years. Maureen, in her seventies, is on a journey. I’m not sure she even knows what she’s looking for. But she sets off in her car to find it anyway. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. I liked this book.

The 3rd in a trilogy. Maureen, Harold Fry's wife has here turn to make a journey. Different journey, different reasons, different interactions, and different lessons learned. I found this whole series to be so interesting.

What a lyrical, sensitive story. Maureen is a very short, fast read. It was a joy getting to know Maureen and seeing her point of view in the last book of this trilogy.

Maureen is the third book in a trilogy, but the first that I’ve read. The spare, very direct narration reminded me of the writing of Emma Strout and Frederik Backman, both of whose novels I’ve enjoyed. Now I can look forward to more from Rachel Joyce as well.

Maureen is on a journey in this novel, to visit a garden she’s told is dedicated to her dead son. But really her journey is a return of sorts, a return to the world of the living after grieving her son for thirty years. The novel is short and written in a comfortable style that I read in one sitting. Maureen evolves from a cold and critical woman who holds herself apart from others, to slowly recognizing her need for connections and relationships. I look forward to discovering more about her, her husband, and their lives both together and apart, by reading the first two books in this series.