Becky Doughty

Wow—has it really been a little over five years since I started reading about the community of misfits at the Pemberton Manor apartments? I've been anticipating this fifth story, featuring Pax Thayer front and center, ever since I witnessed his supporting role in Book Two four years ago. Because I'd lost contact with Pemberton's peeps for a while, I went back and brushed up on the previous books before diving into The Mended Man by author Becky Doughty.

Now, I think because other books in this contemporary fiction series focus in on short periods of time, I was a little thrown by the way this book skips over so many weeks and months at a time. For a few stretches, it felt like I was reading an overview of Pax's story rather than the story itself. And as I'd spent years imagining how this leg of his journey would play out, there wasn't much happening in the story that, by now, I didn't know or wouldn't have already guessed would happen.

Also, concerning the central relationship in this fifth book, I was a little frustrated seeing the two main characters being as unsure and hesitant around each other as they still seem to be after almost a year of their lives, even with what they've been through together and their warm and sweet words to each other.

On the other hand, it isn't like people who've been through serious trauma necessarily have the easiest time getting comfortable in relationships, learning to love and trust. So the characters' situation here isn't unrealistic.

And seriously, though this installment of the series didn't give me any surprises (outside of a certain enlightening aspect of Pax's medical condition), the strength of the overall series and my growing care for the characters through all the books had me rooting for them just the same.

The magic of the Manor will do that to ya'.

If you're into "you'll laugh, you'll cry" types of stories with deeply drawn characters, you'll want to start the Pemberton Manor series from the beginning.… (más)

Grace Winters is tall and has a commanding presence, but that doesn't keep her from being left behind by people other than her parents and siblings. On this Christmas Eve, she's mourning another such goodbye. However, it is Christmas Eve, and traditions must be observed. Her family gathers at her parents' home for this important night--but this year, her sister, Sarah, has chicken pox. She's staying home, in her apartment in the charming but not always well-maintained Pemberton Manor. Grace, having had chicken pox years ago, is going to spend the night with Sarah. She's brought lots of food prepared by their mother, altogether too much for one healthy woman and one sick woman.

Grace gets as far as the Pemberton Manor elevator, one of the things that hasn't been well-maintained. She's in the elevator with a very pregnant woman named Lucy, Lucy's three-year-old daughter, Itsy, and a rather silent and distant man called August Jones, when it stops between the second and third floors.

When the building maintenance guy can't be bothered to interrupt his Christmas Eve to get them out, they're truly stuck. Sarah tells Grace that she's too sick to eat more than some soup anyway, and asks for one particular treat to be saved for her, but otherwise, she should absolutely share Christmas Eve dinner with her accidental company.

It's a sweet novella with well-developed characters whom we get to know, and enjoy.

Recommended.

I received this novella as a freebie from the author's newsletter, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (más)

Stella has essentially been waiting in isolation for too long, as if she’s put her life on hold during her later years. But when she witnesses an incident outside of her apartment that, unfortunately, is all too familiar, a crime will lead to her chance to move forward again in Pemberton Manor: The Waiting Woman by author Becky Doughty.

Okay, so for a while there, I almost suspected that Stella might turn out to be a minor character in her own story, serving mostly as a supporting backdrop for the ongoing activity of other Pemberton people. Not that I’m not interested in the other Pemberton people, since I’m happily invested in all of these folks, but I was still pleased to see Stella’s story take a more definite place on center stage, after a bit.

This installment manages to be a little complex, a little more heartbreaking, and also redemptive and fun—not all at the same time, but at the right times. I could empathize with Stella on a couple of different levels, and a part of her past all but sent my stomach plummeting to the floor. *Gasp.* Ouch.

I had some trouble getting a handle on the episode’s flow in places, and a few of the scenes felt a tad long to me. (Ironic, I know, since it’s only about sixty pages of reading.) I also wasn’t that excited to see a returning character in a victim role, since that Pemberton person has already gotten a good amount of that in an earlier episode or two.

Nevertheless, after the inspiring “What are you waiting for?” message in this episode, I’m quite content to be a waiting woman, patiently awaiting the continuation of this serial novel. (That might be kind of ironic too, but, oh well.)… (más)