I was so excited when I read the premise of Sproles new novel This is Where it Ends. The hidden gold, the mysterious box, the handsome young city reporter, and the mountain woman close to the end of her journey all felt like the elements of a book I was sure to love and yet I found myself disenchanted.
While I typically love the old mountain granny type of character ( I know so many ladies who would fit that category in real life minus the mountains), Minerva's character frustrated me on a few levels.
Minerva's story, even in its resolution, just hit me as sad. While some may applaud the character's faithfulness to her promises and husband, the story presented was one of such loneliness, captivity to promises that didn't deserve it, and wasted potential that her final chapter of peace feels like too little, too late to really be satisfying. Minerva herself spends most of the book asking/complaining why she can't just die.
The story arc with the young reporter Del Rankin could have had potential between his role in the mysterious box, his learning life outside of the city, and the connection he slowly builds with Minerva but with the rushed timeline and the reader stuck in Minerva's waiting to die mindset Rankin's quest for answers feels too rushed to feel like a true redemption arc.
Perhaps I just had misplaced expectations about the story's focus. When the book's blurb mentioned "a lonely life" I expected more of the sometimes lonely and less of the toxic decisions that set the course of Minerva's life.
3 out of 5 stars
Book was provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and Baker Publishing Group.
