Book Review: Primrose Street by Marina L. Reed

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I met Marina L. Reed at an author event at our local library. She was sharing a table with me so we chatted and I politely purchased one of her books, and I'm glad I did. I loved this book. Primrose Street is a story about many families that live on one street. Thankfully the author drew up a grid at the beginning of the book because too many characters can make a story confusing, especially when characters become intertwined as they do in/on Primrose Street. The book is only 184 pages with very short chapters. An easy read. I started this book while on vacation but when I returned I was thrown into Christmas and struggled to find time to read. When I finally made the decision to finish the book tonight I had lost my memories to some of the stories, but the ending wrapped everything up for me so I could "catch up" and refreshen my memory. But I strongly recommend you read this book as consistently as you can in order to keep all the characters straight. Some of you avid readers could probably read it in one sitting. The families in this story all live on a very Canadian street filled with maple trees. In fact I would say the trees are a character in and of themselves. The families are diverse, with different stories, likes, dislikes, secrets and lies. There is sadness, there is happiness, there is love and there is hate and there is forgiveness and acceptance. There are I think 5 generations in this story (I'm looking at the grid). It's a wonderfully told story that opens the reader up to all kinds of societal issues and dysfunctional families - Drugs, abuse, adultery, sexuality, suicide, love stories that are so beautiful. It's got a bit of everything in it. Everything we need to know and talk about as a society. Primrose Street would make a great book club read. I highly recommend this story.