The author Lois Cahall is a brilliant storyteller who brings her readers along this tale of a woman who has to face vanquished desires, duty, and destiny with enthusiasm in a way that honors the character.

“The Many Lives and Loves of Hazel Lavery” is a historical fiction book by Lois Cahall. I felt, reading the description of this book, that it would be right up my alley. Turn of the 20th century setting, a flamboyantly interesting main character, a love story (and love triangle), art, and WWI. So, it was with rather high expectations that I began this book. I liked the introduction - a mention of Michael Collins and an estate sale. Settling into the story, I think I know what bothered me - the writing style doesn’t match the time period. Hazel is flighty (she is barely out of her teens so I gave that a pass) but the reads younger than she should. When discussing art she seemed full of exclamation marks and breathless but then went into teenage pouting when she couldn’t get her way with her mother. It just felt “off.” I think Ms. Cahall is trying to bridge “then” with “now” - postpartum depression is referred to as that - not what it was called back in the early 1900s (which wasn’t PPD as that term was coined in the 1970s). I believe Hazel Lavery lead a fascinating life, but, for me, this book didn’t present it in a way that I enjoyed.

"I'm learning that in loss and in living, it's best to expect nothing and appreciate everything."
I loved John and Hazel's friendship, their adventures together made up this story. Ned was a weird character, it felt like his part in the story didn't have much effect.
"My mind was playing tricks on me. I'd been married to John Lavery so many times in recurring fantasies that it felt like I'd already been his wife.
To me this book feels like it's jumping around in time a lot. Some of the timelines are not accurate, maybe this author did this on purpose but maybe not. It felt very disjointed. I read most of it but I couldn't continue past page 150 roughly. The characters were interesting though and Hazel was an interesting main character that developed throughout the novel.

One thing to point out though is that there are too many different characters. I'm finding that with most books, you only need 2-4 characters at most.