Book 3 - The Year She Fell

The Year She Fell by Alicia Rasley

I Love it. It's definitely going to my favorite book list for sure. If my favorite book in 2010 is One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, this book is the first in my candidate for favorite book in 2011. It's that book that any other books I'm yet to read this year would be compared to (I want to name it the best book I read in 2011, but it's still the first week of January. I'd like to think I'd found more awesome books and certainly don't want it to go downhill from here).

How do I start?

The characters are strong, well developed, with appropriate amount of layers and background stories to breathe distinct personalities to each of them. What amazed me is the eased with which the author, Alicia Rasley, assumed and explored the identity of each person, giving different first person's point of views and voices. If you tell me these characters are real people and Ms. Rasley simply recorded what they told her, I would have believed you.

And what a story it is! I certainly did NOT see it headed that way, and I love how Ms. Rasley guided me through the eyes and hearts of these different characters as the story unfolds.

Only one, well, two things that I wishes she had written more. The first one is the Matriarch's point of view. Although, I suppose that's the whole point, so that just as the characters felt, in the end, we felt as if we could never know the real Mrs. Wakefield. She's a strong, smart, and imposing public figure, she's a loyal wife, she's also a good mother who must chose the lesser of two evils at times and just like a lot of mothers out there, was misunderstood and reduced to just that: Mother.

I mean, once you have the title Mother, it seems that that one word sums up the whole person. People tends to forget that before a woman becomes a mother, she's also a child, a girl, a young woman, a wife (sometimes), and that these experiences and the people and situations she interact with, ingrained and shaped who she is when she becomes a mother. Once she is a mother, she remains, forever always, a person in her own right, and more importantly, a distinct individual, a human being. And you know what, human made mistakes.

She's a mother, NOT a saint!

Each character was given a chance to tell their stories, and therefore explained themselves and why they did what they did. But not Mrs. Wakefield. So, I'm really curious to know what her story is. Maybe Ms. Rasley should publish 2nd epilogue like Julia Quinn did, and give Mrs. Wakefield a chance to tell her stories, to tie the loose ends and what happened to her daughters afterwards.

**Spoiler Alert**

Did Ellen and Tom manage to rekindle their marriage? How did Sarah deal with the situation? Did the long distant relationship between Laura and Jackson work? and what about Theresa?

Yes, what about Theresa? Come on, it is just so obvious that something will happen between her and Mitch. Theresa is the most conflicted character (after Cathy, I suppose) in the book. It can't be easy for her to adjust to her new life outside the cloister, and Mitch is not without emotional baggage himself. While Ellen, Tom, Jackson, and Laura seemed to have dealt with their past demons or finally at the stage of their lives where they know who they are and felt comfortable with themselves in the book, the same can't be said about Theresa and Mitch, both I believe have just started the healing process.

Please Ms. Rasley, in the unlikely event that you read this, please write about Theresa and Mitch. I NEED to know more about them!!

Anyway, regardless of that, This Book is so good that despite having a free Kindle version of it, I'd buy the printed copy as well!