PRIVATE WAY is a gentle story about the connections, however tenuous, between neighbors and friends. I enjoyed following along the main character's journey as she matured and took responsibility for her actions and learned to better appreciate the efforts of those around her.

Fans of a dramatic or fast-paced narrative should look elsewhere. PRIVATE WAY seems intended for a literary audience who doesn't mind a quiet story with a somewhat leisurely pace.

Randolph excels at conveying a sense of place.

Private Way is a book about neighbors and finding oneself. It's a pleasant quiet read that brings to light the fact that your past and present stay with you.

I enjoyed this book a lot! The characters were relatable and the humor was dry. Personally, i enjoy that very much in a book! I appreciated the representation of all walks of life and the need to run away for a while to settle yourself out.

Utterly charmed by this book! Vivi Marx is a wonderful main character--self-aware yet obtuse, quiet yet obnoxious, odd yet ordinary. All of her contradictions coexist to create an interesting, dimensional person for the reader to follow through a year of life falling apart and knitting back together with the help of Willa Cather, a sexy dog, a gardener's ghost, and the weird neighbors who make a family. Plus, pie! Totally recommend.

When cyberbullies threaten to take away everything Vivi has worked for, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Without a word, she packs up, purchases a rental car with cash, and throws away her phone. With nothing but a physical map and a tourist guide, she makes her way to Lincoln, Nebraska and finds herself amidst a group of townies who welcome--but are wary of--newcomers.

As Vivi carves out this new life for herself, the more she realizes how pleasant it is to disconnect...as well as how stressful it is to know that nobody knows where she's been for the past several months. The unfolding of her story to the townies is both immediately believable and insightful. She unintentionally creates a persona for herself, one that others don't know if they believe. Who is she, really, to these folks? A renter? A stranger? A liar? She isn't sure which one is best--but then again, nothing can compare to those tracking her down.

This book offers a glimpse at what a life without tech could look like: one of community, one that doesn't tear you apart, one of struggle and inequity but understanding. One of healing, if you let it.

Ultimately, I find this book an interesting and insightful read for those like me, who need to put their screens down more than they think.

In these modern times, I’m fairly certain that almost everyone has had at least a moment or two when they wish they could just get away from all of the updates and near constant connectivity that technology and myriad devices have to offer. I know I have felt this way, though I quickly realize that I appreciate my phone and computer and really don’t want to live without it for long. The cover of Private Way caught my eye, and once I read the synopsis I was hooked. A book about a young woman running away from the technology that she built her career from? Sign me up!

Vivi Marx has never stayed in one place for very long. As a kid, she packed up and followed her mom on a new business venture every few months or so. When she does establish a name for herself by starting a website, it becomes all-encompassing and soon Vivi feels as though her life is on display for everyone to see. Her successful business is thrilling for a while, until the trolls start hacking her accounts and sending her threats. Sitting in their homes (or anywhere, really) behind glowing screens, typing out words that she can only hope they would never say to her face. Vivi knows she doesn’t have to put up with the harassment–she just has to disappear.

As she contemplates how to go about ghosting her online profiles, she realizes that the last place she truly felt happy and safe was as a young girl in Nebraska, with her late grandmother. She decides to leave her home and take some of her belongings and just get away from her life, for a year. Though she has no real plans, she quickly finds a secluded cottage for rent and, leaving her phone and computer behind, sets out for the drive from LA to Nebraska.

Starting from scratch isn’t anything new to Vivi, and the promise of a quiet cottage by a meadow sounds like just what the doctor ordered. What she doesn’t count on is the presence of neighbors that live nearby trying to nose their way into her life. Though they mean well, they quickly become more involved in her days than she intended, which she fears may result in them uncovering things about her past that she had hoped she was leaving far behind…

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and how relevant it is to our society today and how inescapable the internet can feel at times. Even if you can’t relate to Vivi personally, the writing is easy to digest and paints a fictional picture of what cyberbullying can be like and how it can affect adults and their livelihood.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from University of Nebraska Press

This was a different read but enjoyable. Vivi had a very unusual mother and in fact spent a lot of time being raised by her grandmother which was a normal period in her life. She reunites with her mother and finishes school and then she and her best friend start a business. All is going well and then it isn't. She needs an escape and winds up in a small midwestern community that is very similar to a closed in neighborhood. The developments amongst the neighbors and their stories are interesting.

I adored this unexpected, small but powerful book. It was surprising and delightful, and I didn't want to leave the world Ladette Randolph created for me in a little town in Nebraska. After being trolled online as a CEO of a tech company, Vivi decides to go dark and disengage from any Internet for a year by living off the grid in a small community near Lincoln. It doesn't go easy, neighbors aren't as neighborly and she would hope, and small town gossip is even worse than in Silicon Valley. But the story is touching, and moves in fantastic and meaningful directions. A must-read especially if you enjoy Willa Cather.