I just love Southern novels with a sense of cham and humour and in my my mind I was sitting out on the back porch, sipping Ice tea while the fireflys kept me company on a balmy evening in June Reality was a wet Bank holiday Monday in June and the chance to sit outside would be luxury in Ireland, but through reading one can be any where any time and for this book my head was in the deep American South.

I have previously read [b:Blue Asylum|12331596|Blue Asylum|Kathy Hepinstall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324673247s/12331596.jpg|17310610][bc:Blue Asylum|12331596|Blue Asylum|Kathy Hepinstall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1324673247s/12331596.jpg|17310610] by Kathy Hepinstall and thoroughly enjoyed it and was so happy to read [b:The Book of Polly|30763908|The Book of Polly|Kathy Hepinstall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1471279606s/30763908.jpg|51320025]and it really didn't disappoint as the writting and characters just ooze that southern charm that makes me want to pack a bag and hop on a plane.

I simply adored the characters in this book and the lines were just fabulous with so much wit and humour and charm that I laughed out loud many times. I fell head over heels in love with Polly and her no nonsense attitude and Willow and the other characters were equally as interesting and charming. There is a serious side to the story when the " Bear" becomes a reality in the lives of Polly and Willow but the author has a way with words that keeps this book fresh and fun.

This isn't the sort of book that keeps you on the edge of your seat but its a beautiful story, well written and full of witty lines with tons of southern charm. Its the sort of feel good book that keeps you turning the pages because you have fallen for the characters and care about what becomes of them.

Really enjoyed this book and recommend it to readers who have enjoy southern fiction or just want a feel good summer read to transport them to someplace else. ( )

I want to be like Polly someday, with a filter I pretty much choose to ignore. 😜 It’s Polly’s honesty and fierce devotion to the people she cares about that made me love her character. Willow was equally daring and charming, and her conviction to save her mother (in several ways) was beautiful. This story was a delight to read. ( )

Easy enjoyable read dealing with real life issues with wonderful humour ( )

One of the best coming of age books I've read in while. Quirky, believable characters, and a good plot. The writing is delightful; I wanted to keep reading and reading and reading.

Recommended for late middle school on up. ( )

FROM AMAZON: With a kick like the best hot sauce, this is the laugh-out-loud story of a girl determined to keep up with her aging, crazy-as-a-fox mother.

Willow Havens is 10 years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother will die. Her mother, Polly, is a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman who lives to chase varmints, drink margaritas, and antagonize the neighbors - and she sticks out like a sore thumb among the young, modern mothers of their small conventional Texas town. She was in her late 50s when Willow was born, so Willow knows she's here by accident, a late-life afterthought. Willow's father died before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone and failing elsewhere. It's just her and bigger-than-life Polly.

Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Polly's life pre-Willow. Why did she leave her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana, 50 years ago and vow never to return? Who is Garland Jones, her long-ago suitor who possibly killed a man? And will Polly be able to outrun the Bear, the illness that finally puts her on a collision course with her past?

The Book of Polly has a great blend of humor and sadness, pathos and hilarity. This is a bittersweet novel about the grip of love in a truly quirky family, and you'll come to know one of the most unforgettable mother-daughter duos you've ever met.

Be prepared to leave your heart with Willow Haven and her mother Polly...who was 58 years old when she became a widow and then learned that she was going to be a mother. You can imagine the difficulties that both of them had since Willow should...by all the laws of nature...been Polly's granddaughter and not her daughter. The book will make you laugh and it will make you cry but overall it will just make you feel good. It's a daughter and mother story with all the joys and fears that come with motherhood as well as daughterhood. I don't recommend very many books as we all have our different ideas of what makes a "must read" story...but If you don't have time to read another book this coming year...I would recommend you give this one a try. ( )

Mother/daughter relationships are special. This book explores the relationship between daughter Willow and mother Polly. Children keep secrets, but sometimes so do parents. Beautifully written, wonderful characters, cannot help loving them. Enjoyable read! ( )

Polly lives in Texas. She has three children. The last child, Willow, was born shortly after Polly’s husband died when Polly was in her late fifties. Ten-year-old Willow is the narrator of the book. She tells of her mother, a feisty woman who hates the varmints that destroy her garden, who happens to antagonize their neighbors, and who loves to drink.

Since she never knew her father and her siblings are older, Willow yearns to know about life before she was born. One day when she is snooping she finds a letter in her mother’s belongings from a former suitor and Willow decides she must find out who was pursuing her mother before she married Willow’s father.

Unfortunately, that is not Willow’s only concern. Because Polly is older and because Willow has lost her father, she constantly fears that her mother might die and leave her as an orphan. That worry becomes more concerning to Willow when she learns her mother, Polly, has cancer.

The book has many humorous moments that make one chuckle. But it also has many sadly emotional scenes. The characters are quirky and unique as are the situations in which they find themselves involved. I recommend it as a light read with an uplifting ending.
( )

Polly grew on me. I've got to admit that I thought her character was a bit "over the top" at first, but I was certainly sympathetic and rooting for her by the end. Probably I just couldn't imagine being a girl so worried about my mother dying. A good read.
II checked out this book because the daughter had the same name as my daughter--Willow. ( )

Some humor, some heartbreak, really enjoyed this book. ( )

Joy's review: A fun book about a girl obsessed that her mother might die (because she was born when Mom was 50) trying to learn about her mother's past. Both Polly and daughter are very interesting characters. An unpretentious, nicely written, and entertaining book. ( )

The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall is narrated by Willow Havens, who starts off the book as a precocious and headstrong adolescent. Willow lives with her widowed mother, Polly, who had her when she was 58 years old. Polly is a cantankerous, Southern Christian known by her family and throughout her neighborhood for her Southern inhospitality.

The reader follows Willow, who never knew her father—referred to as “The Captain” by her family—as she struggles through the ups and downs of being raised poor by her eccentric mother who clearly loves her dearly. Hepinstall skillfully inserts plot-driven elements throughout the novel that helped to keep me interested until the very end.

My reading of this novel was definitely enhanced by listening to the audiobook narrated by Jenna Lamia. Even though Jenna is a grown woman, her adolescent- and teenage-sounding voices of Willow sound completely believable. Moreover, I loved how her voice changed, chameleon-like, through the many colorful-sounding Southern characters in the book; and there are many.

My only major dislike about The Book of Polly is that there is a dark specter of violence lurking in the background throughout the novel. Being someone who prefers not to read novels peppered with violence, I only mention this because, while mostly suggested, the violence seemed gratuitous at times and never really enhanced the narrative. This is perhaps the only reason I didn't give the novel 5 stars. Otherwise, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a Southern, coming of age novel written by a seasoned author. ( )

LITERARY FICTION
Kathy Hepinstall
The Book of Polly: A Novel
Pamela Dorman Books
Hardcover, 978-0-3995-6209-9, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 336 pgs., $26.00
March 14, 2017

‘“No one calls my daughter a liar,” [Polly] said, leaning on the word in a way that made me miserable because I was, in fact, a liar. And I had told some lies—and even worse, some truths—about my mother to my classmates. In my defense, she was great fodder, and this was years before she killed our neighbor.’

In a small town outside of Houston, Texas, Pauline “Polly” Perkins Havens, a fifty-eight-year-old widow, gives birth to a little girl, Willow, eight months after the sudden death of her husband. Never knowing her father and not really knowing her much older siblings, Willow is terrified Virginia Slims–smoking, margarita-aficionado Polly will die before Willow can get to know her (“It ruined the feel of guinea-pig fur and the crunchiness of popcorn”), leaving Willow unmoored in the world. Feeling cheated of her family and pressed for time, Willow is obsessed with learning Polly’s secrets (“The story was a blank stare and I wanted it to blink”). And Polly, having escaped her past in the swamps of Louisiana, does have secrets.

The Book of Polly: A Novel is Kathy Hepinstall’s smart, clever, sardonically hilarious, and moving story of the relationship between a mother and a daughter. A woman graces the cover of The Book of Polly wearing a strawberry-red skirt suit reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy, with impeccable hair and makeup, holding a garden trowel, a falcon perched on her shoulder. That’s right, I said a falcon; all will become clear.

The Book of Polly proceeds at a steady pace, not cluttered up with extraneous storylines. Hepinstall’s word choice is precise, her phrasing often a delightful surprise (“In my mind the worst-case scenario loped along like a runaway spaniel, leash trailing, enjoying its freedom and eluding all pursuers”). Hepinstall’s characters are quirky and complex; Polly is a bundle of inexplicable contradictions, like most of us, but mysteriously so to a child. It doesn’t help that Polly and Willow are a lot alike. Willow’s first-person narration, reflecting the imperfect understanding of a child, lends to the mystery.

Hepinstall’s dialogue will have you laughing aloud. Here Polly and Willow are discussing a dinner party during which Polly will try to charm the neighbors into helping pay for their shared backyard fence:

“Jesus says in the Bible to make friends with your enemies and turn the other cheek and really try the nice way first to get them to go in on a fence.”
“I don’t remember that particular verse,” [Willow] said.
“Well, maybe you should stop daydreaming about that Dalton boy in church, sassy brat.”

There is something classic about The Book of Polly, with the garden symbolizing time. “Time kept passing and passing no matter what we did. It had slid inside my training bra and made my breasts grow,” Willow says. “It had killed the eggplant crop and given birth to the peppers. It was, at this very moment, under my mother’s scarf, pulling up hairs like garden weeds.” I’m reminded of Anne Tyler or Jane Smiley, but with Jonathan Tropper’s sharper edge. Think Larry McMurtry’s Terms of Endearment, think Steel Magnolias. Note that Shirley MacLaine starred in both movies.

Y’all go hug your mothers.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. ( )

This is the story of Polly and her daughter, Willow. At the age of 58 and just weeks after the death of her husband, Polly learns she is pregnant with her daughter, Willow. The book covers Willow from childhood into adolescence, and she is haunted by the knowledge that Polly may die sooner than younger mothers. Polly is feisty, funny and suffers no fools. She is fiercely devoted to Willow, who is also feisty, funny and determined to get to the bottom of a relationship that Polly had in her younger years despite Polly's reluctance to divulge any details. Theirs is a poignant, bittersweet relationship. Polly's life is threatened when she is diagnosed with cancer, and Willow has to face that fact. This is a heartwarming story about a unique mother and daughter. I wish that everyone had the gift of a Polly. I did. ( )

After the death of her husband, Polly in her late fifties finds herself pregnant. A last, unexpected gift from her late husband, and so Willow is born. In their small Texas town, Polly is much older than the other mothers, a fact that makes Polly fearful. At the age of ten, Willow begins to fear for her mother's health, and also becomes aware that Polly has some big secrets. Why for instance hasn't Polly ever gone back to her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana? So she begins to snoop and here the story begins.

I fell in love with this author when I read her book [book:Blue Asylum|12331596], and though this is not historical, it is Southern and full of charm, humor and yes, heartbreak. It is a jumble of all things that make a novel fun, though there is a matter of serious concern, when the bear come to visit. Polly is a fantastic character, already raises two older children and now a mother of a young daughter, she is full of spit and vinegar. Doesn't suffer fools gladly, but fiercely protective of Willow. Born again Christians, faith healers, a raft trip and a rather neurotic dog, some great supporting characters and chock full of family, caring and love. Love the ending though I did find parts of it a bit schmaltzy. well worth the read.

ARC from publisher.
Publishes March 14th from Pamela Dorman. ( )