Count The Ways by Joyce Maynard

Count The Ways

Joyce Maynard has totally outdone herself with this new novel of family, tragedy, sorrow, great love and forgiveness. She has absolutely knocked it right out of the book park!!!

COUNT THE WAYS just kept getting better and better. It totally became a page-turner and kept me reading way longer than I had intended.

This is the story of Eleanor and Cam and their three children. But it’s also the story of their friends and relatives. There is great love and deep sorrow. My heart could not keep up. It’s quite simply a stunning novel. Even before Eleanor met Cam and married him, we discover how talented and self sufficient she was. Growing up it was one thing after the other and then even more. When she met and married Cam she had already bought her own farm in New Hampshire. Their married life was supposed to be idyll. For years it was. Three children born. Life was good. Until the tragedy that spoils the love Eleanor feels for Cam. She blames him for it. And she can not forgive him.

There are lies, affairs, downright meanness, and even a giant ash tree on this farm that is an actual character itself. They have even named it Old Ashworthy. It’s more than two hundred years old and has watched over this family and the ones before it. The cover features this massive tree and shows its importance in more ways than mere words can express.

I went into this wonderful novel not knowing anything about it. And that’s how you should approach it, too. I’ve seen reviews all over that include spoilers from the get-go. Do not go there. Just read it. It’s one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time, maybe ever.

I read this amazing novel digitally from William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins publishing, through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, it’s simply wonderful. Do not miss it. The characters are flawed; every one of them. Just like we humans truly are. They will live in my mind for a long time. I loved it!!

Joyce Maynard