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Alicia Rasley

The Year She Fell Kindle Edition

by Alicia Rasley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

262 ratings

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The tragic mystery at the heart of their family has finally surfaced . . . When Ellen Wakefield O'Connor is confronted by a young man armed with a birth certificate that mistakenly names her as his mother, she quickly sorts out the truth: his birth mother listed Ellen on the certificate to cover up her own identity, but also because Ellen is, in a way, related to the child. The birth father is Ellen's troubled husband, Tom. The secrets of the past soon engulf Ellen, Tom, and everyone they love.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bell Bridge Books
Publication date

November 15, 2010
File size

1110 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The Year She Fell byAlicia Rasley
Reader's Guide

The Year She Fell is set in the mountains of West Virginia, a beautiful but impoverished state. Discuss the situation of the Wakefield sisters, growing up rich but surrounded by poverty.
Both Ellen and her sister Theresa have religious vocations, but while Ellen's faith is low-key, Theresa's requires constant sacrifice. What about their personalities and experiences might account for the difference in religious intensity?
Mitch Price is an artisan, a man who works creatively with his hands in a traditional craft (wood-carving). In his own way, he is as much a throwback as Mrs. Wakefield. How might the remote setting (mountainous West Virginia) lead to an embrace of more traditional forms and roles?
Jackson McCain was a delinquent who grew up to be a cop. What sort of experiences might account for such a transformation?
Mrs. Wakefield is a society matriarch of a sort not seen much in these days of grannies in hiking boots. Tom calls his father "a professional Irishman," deepening his accent and Irishness to impress the Americans who come to his pub. Trevor O'Connor. and Mrs. Wakefield are both most comfortable in the personas imparted by their social class and situation. Is that sort of role-inhabiting a thing of the past in our fast-changing society? Contrast this with the discarding of early roles (delinquent and debutante) shown by the younger Jackson and Laura.
Laura and Jackson never got over their early love, and they reunite as adults. Is this sort of "reunion love" an example of self-deception, or can what attracted us at 16 still be alluring in midlife?
In his reckless youth, Tom betrayed Ellen. Do you think it's possible to forgive and forget in a case like theirs? Is she a fool if she believes him when he says he loved only her?
Cathy is the great enigma, and her death the mystery that her sisters must solve. Consider the damage she has done to each sister. Does her reason absolve her of guilt? How much should childhood trauma excuse adult misbehavior?
Were Mrs. Wakefield's attempts to protect her family admirable or lamentable? Chief McCain thinks she's crazy, as are most rich women. Do you agree that wealth distorts reality for the wealthy?
All families have secrets, though the Wakefields have more than most. Have you discovered secrets in your own family? What did your parents and grandparents hide from you, and why?

About the Author

Alicia Rasley is a Rita-award winning author and nationally knownteacher of writing workshops. She teaches composition and tutorsstudents in two state universities. She grew up in the mountains ofSouthwest Virginia but now lives in the midwestern flat land.

Her blog is at: edittorrent.blogspot.com, and her website israsley.com. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, is stillavailable from Writer's Digest Books.

Product details

ASIN : B004CFBMR4
Publisher : Bell Bridge Books (November 15, 2010)
Publication date : November 15, 2010
Language : English
File size : 1110 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 320 pages
Lending : Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,249 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #16,608 in Family Life Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #19,638 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #29,239 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
262 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		43%
4 star		30%
3 star		14%
2 star		8%
1 star		6%

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LovingRomance

Small town, huge secrets.

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2017

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I am always amazed at the differences in reactions to a book. In this one a matriarch has to uphold her family's standards. She keeps secrets, her adult children keep secrets, and children pay the,price. Because tv/media have coarsened our culture does not mean there aren't pockets of this mentality in small towns across the US. Some reviewers have difficulty with the way this is written. Other feel there are too many balls in the air. I liked the story and the way it is presented.
One young man looking for his birth mother starts pulling the threads of the fabric holding a family together. What looks like a simple request made many time a day becomes the fact that every single member of a family has to accept the truth and learn to live with it. In one instance there is the second chance where two people will rekindle their romance. In another, a middle aged couple has to grapple with the idea that a long held secret will forever change their family. The couple has a lot of work to do in the future. The last gives just a hint that a romance might begin for two damaged people. Although all the loose ends are tied up they are not tied tightly. I like that the book does not end in an unrealistic way.

2 people found this helpful

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Carla B

Average book, too many typos

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2011

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I have read a few of Alicia Rasley's other books (non-fiction and fiction), but this is the first contemporary novel that I have read by her. From other reviews, it appears this could be her first attempt to write in this genre. It was an average success in my opinion.

I liked the different viewpoints from which the story was told. I also appreciated that not every moment in the story was told over and over in the different viewpoints. Instead, we sometimes got additional insight for some scenes and the new perspective gave us more background information. In this way, I found the book very plot-driven rather than character-driven. I tend to prefer books that are character-driven with a very active and forceful plot (think Dennis LeHane's Shutter Island, for example). I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the book given this format.

I think the plot was interesting, although it was difficult to follow. For instance, at first it seems the entire plot is centered around Ellen's marriage and the young boy that arrives. Typically, any issue with her family or mother would be secondary to this and the plot would focus on her ability to weather the newcomer to her family. However, the novel quickly changed gears and provided much more focus on Ellen's upbringing and her unusual family as well as her obsession with finding the truth. That part of the story, her search, seemed to take the primary focus of the story. However, that changed again as she discovered the identity approximately halfway through the book. Yet again, the story changed focus as it changed narrator. That would continue, continually changing the focus of the book. This was disconcerting as no particular theme seemed to jump forward to provide the connection among the stories and plots. It was kind of like having a dinner featuring a Mexican chicken appetizer, a Japanese fish entree and a Norwegian dessert. With no overall theme other than international cuisine (in this book - finding yourself), it's hard to find all the elements synthesizing.

Another point I disliked was the continual reference to Brian as 'the boy'. Many characters rarely referred to him by name - Ellen I can understand as it would show her emotional state, but other characters? It finally seemed as though the writer had not chosen a name so put 'the boy' throughout the novel then forgot to go back and change all those instances. It was disconcerting then downright annoying, though perhaps this was some literary device that he really was a "nobody"? If so, it wasn't too effective as it was far too noticeable and, well, annoying.

Finally, I could likely get past all of these issues were it not for the typos. I can enjoy very mindless books, including some category romances (Jennifer Crusie books by Silhouette for example). However, I can't enjoy even a reprint of Twain or Dickens or Austen if it is full of typographical errors. Several times I encountered missing words, so I would have to read the sentence a couple of times to determine the missing element. This disrupted the flow of the story (already a problem as previously noted), also disrupting the chance I might create that suspension of disbelief so necessary in the best stories.

All in all, I thought it was a decent book. As I said, I liked the various perspectives. The plots were interesting, but it could use some work to make one overall theme or plot with more focus. It has a solid three rating for me - buy it at a discount or get it for free.

One person found this helpful

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kswildflower

Too Many Threads, Not Enough Binding

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2016

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This book would have been better written in the style of Mary Higgins Clark. Take the five different viewpoints and weave them together in shorter snippets around the events instead of recovering old ground with each character. However, to give Alicia Rasley credit, each viewpoint does take you closer to the conclusion than the previous one, which creates the plot building effect. I felt the story had climaxed before we got to Theresa or Jackson. Theresa's viewpoint caught my interest at the point where she went in search of her birth family, but it set up a second plot. This would have been better introduced earlier, before the initial storyline, Brian's parentage, was concluded. This made the story somewhat anti-climactic. I also felt like the steamy love scenes could have been cleaned up and the strong cuss words omitted. However realistic, they really added nothing to the story. Overall there were too many threads and not enough binding.

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Jericho Barrons

The Year She Fell

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2012

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This book was a big surprise to me. When I started reading it at first I lost interest pretty fast. After a chapter or two I decided it just wasn't for me and I removed it from my kindle. A few days later though I got onto the Cloud Reader on my PC and began to read it. Why? I don't really know.

After reading it for a while in class I was hooked. I began to enjoy it and wanted to hear the rest. This book ALWAYS surprised me. When I thought I'd figured it out, something would shift in the story line and my hypothesis would be wrong. It was annoying and fun at the same time.

The ending of the book was definitely satisfying. After figuring out why everyone was acting the way they were and where everyone belonged and who they exactly were, it was left pretty well.

I also really enjoyed how each character got their own POV for a while. My favorite was probably Laura's and Jackson's. I really liked Jackson and found myself hoping dearly that they would end up together.

This usually isn't my cup of tea but I loved it!

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Top reviews from other countries

Maecy

Well crafted but lacking suspense.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2011

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I enjoyed this book, it was well written and consistent throughout. It was however a little long winded. The book is writen in turns by the four main characters, each gets a section and each section ends with a new revelation. However as the perspective changes, time shifts back with the new author, so although there was a lot of interesting detail, their wasn't much suspense. It was a well crafted story, but with few surprises as it was very much the story of one family and pretty much no outside charaters got a look in, so it quickly became clear that every secret revealed or suspected would involve one of those central characters.

I got this book when it was a kindle freebie, returning to review it I am a little shocked it is now piced so high (Â£7.95). I don't think it is worth that much, however if you are reading this and it is now priced around Â£3 I'd say you weren't getting a bad deal!

Imogen

Gripping book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2012

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A great book, some parts were more gripping than others but there were points where I couldn't put the book down. It is written from the point of view of four different characters so each time the plot goes back you learn more. I got the book for free on kindle so was definitely worth it!

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