Everything You Are: A Novel

Everything You Are Kerry Anne King Lake Union Pub, Oct 1, 2019 331 pages Women’s Lit, Adult Lit, Contemporary Fiction Amazon Early Releases ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The cover is lovely and makes me think of the bouquet of flowers that Phee shows up with when all the other flowers are formal funeral arrangements. Her flowers are bright and cheerful. Phee is always a bit different. I like the touch of the marks that are used on either side of the words “a novel” that look like fs. These same markings are found on musical instruments, such as cellos, which play such a major role in the story. The story is amazing. I realized that it was being released tomorrow and had stopped at 80% last night when I went to bed. So I finished reading it this morning and sat down to write this review immediately. I want this posted before the book is released so you all know just how wonderful this book is. It’s one of those that will make you cry in places and make you want to shake people at times or maybe give them a good swift kick in the butt. Or at least a good talking to. Phee is the character that the story starts out with and she is the one who holds it all in place until the end when it swings back to her. But the active story seems to really focus on Braden Healey, a gifted cellist with damaged hands, and his 17-year-old daughter, Allie, also a gifted cellist. Braden and his now late wife were estranged for 11 years while he was an alcoholic, amnesiac, and living totally away from all of his family and friends. Allie was taking cello lessons her father was providing funds for while her mother was trying to get her into pre-med school and keep her life strictly regimented. Phee was maintaining the cello as was called for in the life-long contract Braden had signed at the age of ten with Phee’s grandfather. And this is where the magic part comes in… Yes, I said magic. The cello has a soul which Braden feels when he plays the cello. Phee feels the soul of the cello as well. She was there in the shop the day he signed the contract, and somehow she got caught up in the loop of magic. She has been in love with Braden and his cello ever since. Even for the eleven years when he was among the missing, or unknown, when he was away from the cello not playing. Allie also feels the soul of the cello now that she plays it. I don’t want to give away any more of this beautiful story of forgiveness and love. I can’t recommend it highly enough for those of you who enjoy such tales. Damaged people helping people, finding forgiveness and finding resolution, finding love. I definitely give this one five stars and highly recommend it. This is an author I’d like to read more of. Thank you, Amazon for offering this book as an Early Release this month.

This book was an unexpected delight! This is not my usual kind of book as it seemed far too tragic and perhaps maudlin for my taste so I’m really glad I gave it a try. I was having a hard time choosing a second Kindle First Read and read the sample and found myself hooked so if you’re having the same problem deciding check out the sample. This book is very much about redemption as Braden finds his way back to his daughter but also life and discovers other people going through something similar. I really enjoyed Phee and her zest for life. My favorite part of the story though is the magic or curse that inhabits the bond between musician and instrument. I really loved that element of the story and Phee who is the keeper of that bond by an oath she made to her dying grandfather without any understanding of her promise. It did get away from that towards the end and I have some issues with the way innocent people seemed wronged but overall a great read. I’m not a musician at all so I’d imagine the importance of music would really resonate harder with those that are. By the same token this story also deals with alcoholism and the way a character long’s deeply for alcohol in a very detailed way could be hard on anyone with an alcohol issue. Plus I’m not sure the denigration of AA would necessarily be helpful to anyone in need of help. If you are considering the Kindle First Reads options do yourself a favor and skip Quantum which was my first choice and I thought a safe one but was a chore to finish.

I think I came by this book because it was a Kindle first. You don't turn away free books so I wasn't completely happy with the theme of this book. But the prose was really great and I thought I would try it. Once I got into it I could barely put it down. I just race to the Finish even though I kind of knew how it would turn out. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I want to go back and re-read it more slowly to thoroughly enjoy how this fine author develops the story and the cast of characters, and also see how she develops the idea of a spiritual communion between a cello and a person so it is totally sympathetic and believable.

The book was an easy read with some original ideas and perhaps a surprise or two. It was mostly pleasant, though never gripping or very compelling, and occasionally downright annoying. First off, the story takes place in Seattle but the writer clearly is not a Seattle-ite. (We do NOT say "the I-5" or "the 520" -- that is Southern California Speak.) There was place-naming, but no Seattle feel. Calling a cookie "buttery, sugary sweetness" -- twice -- just made me gag. There were about a dozen references to dog slobber or dog drool. Enough! For some reason, none of the characters ever seemed to mind being covered in the disgusting stuff. I wanted to scream at the adults tolerating verbal abuse and rudeness from spoiled teenagers. Nor am I a fan of irrational belief in "curses", although the story didn't necessarily prove a curse. None of the characters were likeable, mainly because none of them were 3-dimensional enough for us to care about. I love character development, but though Allie supposedly had a huge transformation (mostly spontaneous) from bitter, rude and screwed up to dedicated, loving, and wise, the transformation was never believable, and she was still not likeable. The romance was lukewarm at best. The ending was rushed, all tied up too neatly in pretty much the way we expected it to be (all buttery, sugary sweetness). What I DID like was the exploration of the person-instrument relationship. While probably rare, I think there are truly gifted musicians who feel this way about their instruments, and I envy them this passion. And I liked the idea of Adventure Angels, treating the alcoholic not a as failure, but rather as a person who has not yet discovered the wonder and fun that can be had in life when alcohol is not abused.

This is not my usual type of read. But I found this story to be very enjoyable and the dark themes to be very relatable.

From the very first page of this beautiful, haunting book, I was completely immersed in the story and its broken, troubled characters. This is a novel that worked its way into my heart and soul utterly and completely....the rest of the world drifted away as I became immersed in the lives of Phee, Braden, and Allie. The author’s lyrical writing held me captivated—I read through my own tears, my heart in my throat, holding out hope for these wounded people to be healed and whole. Music is an intricate part of this book, weaving its way in an out of the story, tearing the characters apart and bringing them back together. This poignant novel addresses the issues of grief, loss, guilt, alcoholism, suicide, pain and rage with compassion, empathy and honesty. I look for a visceral connection with story and characters with every book I read, but rarely does a book move me as deeply as this one.

I generally read international crime fiction, and I decided to take a break by choosing Everything You Are as my First Reads selection. I'm so glad I did! Phee is a luthier, one who repairs and makes stringed instruments. She is given the business by her grandfather on her 18th birthday...but there are strings (no pun intended) attached. She is to watch over six instruments that have been played by families through a number of generations, special violins and the cello of this tale, that must be played. Braden is a child prodigy who, at the peak of his career, loses his ability to play. That tragedy and those that follow are because of a pact that he signed when first allowed to own the cello. Yes, there's some mysticism in the belief that a curse follows those who do not adhere to the contract. After eleven years of alcoholism, despair, loss of family, Braden and Phee reconnect, and their lives and that of Allie, Braden's talented daughter, become intertwined. This is a novel of redemption, a love story both of music and people. In addition to the main characters, the others are well-drawn to create a memorable, well-rounded tale. I highly recommend this book and plan to look into her other novels.

I wasn't sold on this book but it sounded better than the other First choices. It turned out to be very good, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's well-written and has a clever premise. The characters were very interesting and it was easy to understand and care about them. The book has a supernatural bent to it that is a bit like a loose thread on a shirt...it kinda doesn't go anywhere, really isn't necessary because the stories of the characters are very engaging without it, and it never really seems resolved (I think the author may have been going for a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of lesson, but it wasn't necessary). However, I honestly wouldn't have selected it if it didn't have that in the description because a book about musicians just doesn't seem that interesting (how wrong I would have been!). This is a good read for anyone who has dealt with the trauma of sudden loss, addiction, or abandonment.

Loved this book so much. The characters are so believable and so sympathetic and the idea of the curse drew me in completely; I couldn’t put it down. I found myself wishing there were more books following the other owners of the instruments so I could find out their stories too. Loved the ending.

Everything You Are was a great read. The fact that it had a basis in music and obsessive musicians didn't take away from the storyline, even for people not necessarily music oriented. The characters were believable and well developed. It kept me reading and I was driven to find out how it all turned out in the end. Loved it.

On most levels I really enjoyed this book. The characters are realistic and flawed-but-likeable, and it’s told at a good pace, with a good plot. The main themes are of relationships, alcoholism, grief, music, and these are all well written. My problem with it was that I didn’t quite buy into the book’s concept. Phee’s belief in and evidence for the ‘curse’ was the element that underpinned the story, and I just couldn’t connect with that. The correlation between the musicians who stop playing and tragedy was Phee’s evidence, and she persuades others that it’s true. But I just had the phrase “correlation doesn’t equal causation” running through my head in an indignant tone. And I don’t believe in curses: reading about some mystical elements is okay, but this was a bit too much for me. That said, the other key element of the plot is of the mystery surrounding Bradon’s past: what happened all those years ago to move him from ‘involved father and musician’ to alcoholic loner? And what happened between him and his brother-in-law? That element really helped the book to move along. Overall a good read.

Worth a read, full of pathos and the sad truth of damaged relationships. A tale of love overcoming fear. Well done.

This is a beautiful, mesmerising book and a great love story. Not in the conventional way, but a deeper love that transcends what we normally think of as love between two people. It’s the deep passion of music, and an instrument with a soul of its own, intertwined with an age old superstition, a curse, that drives people to lengths they never thought possible. I won’t spoil the plot by telling you what it’s all about, you need to read this book to find that out.