I love J. Courtney Sullivan so much, The Engagements is one of my favorite books. This just wasn’t for me. I don’t like creepy, so the spirit angle didn’t do it for me. I just wasn’t pulled in like I have been by her past books.

Jane Flanagan wanted to be the one that got out of her small hometown. She is smart and used that to escape, but in her late 30s, she finds hereslf back repeating the cycles of alcoholism and denial that have plagued women in her family. Jane is both sympathetic and frustrating in turn as she grapples with what comes next in her life.

Her story plays out against her research on the history of the town, centering on a secluded house that holds hundreds of years of women's stories. There are a lot of threads here - indigenous stories, spiritualism, Shakers, the settlement of New England and feminist themes of each.

I look forward to the release of The Cliffs to hear others' thoughts on these big themes and Jane's story - I was riveted from start to finish.

J. Courtney Sullivan's The Cliffs...Such a thought provoking book...This book has it all - History, Romance, Addiction, Spirits AND mom's name! That was unexpected (or was it). WOW I was not expecting to get so much from this book. I have been wanting to go to Maine. Now I will see it through different eyes. Great ending to the story as well. I highly recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley for the advance read and introducing a new author to me :) !

Jane Sullivan is a Harvard archivist, who returns home to Maine after engaging in behavior that puts her marriage and career on the rocks. She has come home to deal with packing up her mom’s house after her death while she faces a very uncertain future. At the center of the story is a secluded, abandoned Victorian home that Jane used to visit as a teenager and used to escape the tense relationship with her mother. As an adult, she is asked by the current owner to investigate its history. In her quest to explore this history, the reader learns about the Shakers, Native Americans, colonialism, stolen/sold artifacts and psychic mediums.

Overall, the book was interesting and I enjoyed reading it, but at times found it challenging to keep track of the various themes being explored in the book that linked to Jane and/or the house. Any one of those themes could have been its own story. However, I would still recommend the book because of the focus on family, relationships and our legacies.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

#TheCliffs #JCourtneySullivan

I have loved everything that J. Courtney Sullivan has written!
I was so thrilled to get my hands on this early, but it felt a bit haphazard to me in the end. I felt like Big Issues kept coming up and that there were so many I just felt overwhelmed. Like it was trying to do too much. I LOVED the creepy early parts so very much.

This historical fiction novel is set in New England, more specifically Maine and New Hampshire. It is the interweaving of many generations of women and their experiences on the same land in New England. In modern time, the story follows Jane, who is struggling with alcoholism and the ways in which alcohol has impacted her marriage and career. Jane begins researching the history of a house on the cliffs in her hometown and discovers stories of love and loss, The book poses ethical questions of who creates history and who controls historical artifacts - do they belong in a museum or should they return to the people in which they belong to (and were often stolen from)? This was a 5-star read for me!

There’s a lot going on in this story, maybe almost too much. The setting of the old house on the cliffs is amazing and I loved the background story and the young girls visiting the house and suspecting it’s haunted. Janes life has been full of struggles and I liked how her friend supported her when her family couldn’t. But I felt the story got a little lost in so must history of the Shakers, the mediums and the history of the area and of Jane’s family.. life is complicated and it was a good ending.

Jane's life is falling apart. She is an alcoholic in denial, and her actions have endangered both her marriage and her job. To hide from her troubles, she returns to her childhood home in Maine under the guise of cleaning out the house after her mother's death.

Jane is so deep in denial she might as well be drowning. She thinks she is better than her mother was and her sister is, since they are both alcoholics who make money by buying and selling other people's junk, a profession she just can't see the point of. Because Jane works for a museum, highlighting the lives of accomplished women. After she agrees to a reading from a psychic to help out a friend, Jane gets interested in the history of her family and in the process is hired by the woman who has bought the old house she used to hang out at when she was a teen to research the history of that home. But often when you dig, you find things you didn't mean to look for.

I was a little concerned going into this because I read a few reviews that said the historical tangents were too much, but I really enjoyed them! Honestly, I learned more about the Indigenous people of Maine and the Shakers while reading this book than I did in my entire 13 years of schooling there. There were a lot of women in this book and not a lot of men, and it was nice to not have their voices be centered. Some of the points of view were unexpected, but I appreciated them. Not every woman here is "good", and I often wanted to grab Jane and shake some sense into her, but I enjoyed the journey all the same.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!
Overall I think this book was trying to do too much- the storyline was fine; Jane spends the summer uncovering the past history of a house from her hometown and in the process uncovers some hidden history about her own family's origins on the island. The author though tried to pull in all sorts of other topics ( environmental impact of colonization, Native American and white relations, the spiritualist movement) that just felt forced within the overall plot. She tried tying them into Jane's storyline, but there were times when it felt like I was reading a Wikipedia article on the topic instead; for me it just bogged the story line down. If you can breeze past those points, and enjoy a slow burn of a plot with no real bag or twist at the end, then this might be the book for you.

Thanks NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this one to review. I had high hopes for this book - a house with a "history," multiple timelines, digging into why there might be a ghost - all of these things are usually in my wheelhouse. And, I love a book that educates me on a part of history I was previously unfamiliar with when it is done subtly as part of the story. Alas, there was nothing subtle about this book. It seems to meander a bit when the story goes into its earliest history. And at times, it feels downright preachy. Perhaps if the story had been a little tighter and not been trying to cover so many things it would have worked better for me?

I am a J Courtney Sullivan completist and was very excited to read The Cliffs, her new novel. I feel this was a bit of a departure for her with a move into historical fiction and I really enjoyed it! Sullivan is able to blend a current timeline with three historical timelines all featuring strong female characters and tying together to one house on the coast of Maine. As a talented writer, Sullivan is able to tie all three storylines together effectively with a focus on the indigenous history of Maine and some magical realism as well! There are a lot of characters and timelines to track but the author weaves them together very well. I really enjoyed this book and think others will as well.

Thank you Knopf and J Courtney Sullivan for the advanced copy!

I am a huge fan of Sullivan’s, having read all of her previous novels, and she doesn’t disappoint. I especially enjoyed being back in her beloved Maine and following young Jane and her fascination with the once glorious now abandoned house. Seeing it through eyes and imagination really drew me in. I liked the chance to get to know Jane from teenager to adulthood. Where there is family drama, an unlikeable character, I’m in, the historical fiction was a bonus.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Cliffs was engaging for the first third. I enjoyed reading about the abandoned house and Jane's struggles, but then it slowed down with other, rather unlikable characters. It was very slow for me, and I almost gave up reading it but finished it. It probably is a "not right now" book for me, but at another time it could be a hit. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A house in Maine that drew Jane’s interest as a child, has a new owner. The house sits on the cliffs with a beautiful view. Twenty years later Jane is back and the house has a new owner and is being repaired as it needs much work after just sitting empty for years.
Secrets, ghost and history. Mother/daughter relationships.
A captivating story.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read this book.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:

I was granted Early Access to the cliffs by Jay Courtney Sullivan on net gallery. For review All opinions and thoughts written here are my own.
The cliffs is a wonderful story that answers the question. What if the walls could talk? What if homes or lands could share the stories of the time that they've spent and the lives that they've seen live within?
This is also a wonderful story about healing through love. The ordinary trauma that can come through addiction and travel through families and sometimes touch over years in ways we don't expect. This book was very moving and I encourage anyone looking for an escape that might also connect you to part of your real world to pick up this book and enjoy. Thank you!.

I had read Maine several years ago and enjoyed it, so I was happy to be able to read The Cliffs and review it. This is one of the best books I have read this year! It has everything - an old Victorian house set on a cliff overlooking the ocean, ghosts, a medium, family secrets, Native American history - once I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down! Very highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

I was very into Jane and her personal struggles but then at 35% the plot meanders along into various tangents that felt like preaching and read like a textbook.

The MC calls people “dumb” but then says that was harsh, it was probably due to their education. She, however, went to Wesleyan where her classes focused on marginalized voices and talked about reparation, allyship, and gender fluidity twenty years ago so now she has a lens through which to see the world.

Unlike us plebeians, she’s so much better and more enlightened than the rest of us.

Sorry but this book is boring af and reads like a lecture.

I find myself really savoring and enjoying every book that I pick up from this author. I saw this on an email from Netgalley and I was like "about an purple Victorian house..." sign me up!

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, and the themes just kept evolving, I think that's the only thing that kept me from giving this book a higher rating. A few too many threads going on in this one, some relevant, and interesting and others just felt too bloated. I can clearly see how much research Sullivan did on the topic of Indigenous repatriation, and I just wish some of the fluffiness of the house and the psychic stuff and the familial issues with alcoholism was cut out. All of these are important topics but were so heavy that it made it a tiny bit hard to focus with so many different threads.

I really loved the psychic medium parts - Clementine (can we take a second for such a great name?) was a delight and I loved the whole idea of Camp Mira - a spiritual campground of sorts. I loved all the pieces of the house coming through. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this novel but just know it's a bit a grab bag of topics going in. This just reminds me that I really need to read her other novels.

I loved Friends & Strangers, so was excited for this one! The writing is beautiful as always- I found myself highlighting paragraphs. The setting of Maine and the creepy abandoned house initially grabbed me. The book started out strong and I was intrigued, but ultimately when it switched to Genevive’s POV I started to get a little run down; I think there were too many themes trying to be crammed in for me personally and I found that it was hard to stick with it.

I have loved each of this author's books for the emotional journey they take me on. Yes, it's a ride, but the way she writes her character's stories with such depth and authenticity pulls me in and doesn't let me go until that very last sentence. This book was hauntingly beautiful, and my words can't truly explain how captivated I was. It's a story about women trying to find their way as they navigate with the past and the present. It's about the complexities of relationships and intergenerational connections. I recognize I am not giving traditional details, but y'all, I just need you to know what a wonderful book this is. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this July 2024 release.