REVIEWS
________________________________________

OLD RYE

Oscar Wilde once claimed that life has only two tragedies: “One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” It’s a quote that seems to resonate throughout Jeanne Farewell’s novel, Old Rye.

Old Rye is the wealthy, oceanside Connecticut town where Phoebe Bennington has lived all her life. As a child she was in love with Wentworth Lockhead, the handsome son of Old Rye’s wealthiest family. Now, Phoebe watches as Wentworth prepares to marry Nell, an outsider with a shady past. With the encouragement of Mrs. Lockhead, Wentworth’s mother, Phoebe tries to convince Wentworth that he’s making a mistake. Little does Phoebe know that her decision to convince Wentworth not to marry Nell will have such an impact on the residents of Old Rye.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Old Rye is a love story. While Phoebe may struggle to find ways to make Wentworth love her, Farewell is really writing about control—how someone may influence and direct another for the well-being of all and how the same person may willingly (or unknowingly) sacrifice their own independence for the good of others. Throughout the novel, Farewell’s characters are put in situations where they must take a stance and truly be happy with that choice, whether the issue is restoring a historic building or marrying a partner everyone they love knows is unsuitable. If they waiver, they forfeit control over their own lives.

While some later sections of the book beg for more detail, Old Rye is a compulsive read that is a near perfect mix of complexity and thrills. Farewell writes with a clear, concise voice that brings the world of the wealthy resort town and its inhabitants to life.  “Mrs. Lockhead was ensconced on a Regency sofa with a glass of sherry in hand,” Farewell writes in one section; “Nell was truculent and unresponsive throughout the meal,” she writes in another. When words fail, Farewell makes up her own; she describes Phoebe at a buffet as “tonging” up pieces of fruit.

Ultimately, Old Rye is a perfect summer read—the ideal mix of thriller and romance to get lost in over a long, hot afternoon. It’s also a book that is sure to leave readers debating whether it’s better to get what you want or not.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        -ForeWORD Clarion Reviews
____________________________________________________________________________________________

IN THE LIGHTHOUSE

"Let’s face it; we have all known someone that seems to have it all: beauty, talent, grace, and true virtues of compassion and humility.  But can they really be as ‘perfect’ as they come across?  Can anyone?  With our own insecurities and human nature, this book points out that we all tend to look for a chink in their armor.

Jeanne Farewell’s In the Lighthouse tells this age old story of jealousy, friendship, and self-discovery in an easy-to-read, entertaining way that is also very enlightening.  Starting out in small town Massachusetts, around an awe-inspiring old lighthouse, Farewell quickly introduces us to two very distinctive, very different characters: Kate Cullen, the inspiring dress designer who has yet to meet a person who does not love her, and Beth Beavers; the very un-inspiring, under-appreciated church bookkeeper who has spent much of her life being overshadowed by her very overpowering, domineering mother.  It is immediately easy to development a mental attachment to Ms. Beavers, you are rooting for her almost as quickly as the story begins, while the reader quickly finds themselves second guessing the means and motives of the seemingly irreproachable Mrs. Cullen. 

One could easily say this distrust stems from a diary entry written by Kate and secretly tucked away, but deep down each reader, and I think Beth, knows that this isn’t really the case.  While it definitely adds mystery and intrigue to the story, the true story is the inner struggles that the characters must go through to reach their goals.  For Kate, it’s launching a business and coming to terms with the disappearance of her husband; for Beth, its gaining self-confidence and finding courage to stand on her own two feet.   Despite a mistrust that has grown between to the two, they aid each other immensely in reaching their goals.

Underneath the mystery and the friendship, love stories also unfold.  Each woman is able to come to terms about what true love really means for them.  While this novel is a fun to read story, the underlying story of human relationships and self-awareness permeates strongly throughout. Because of Farewell’s writing, the characters become people you want to laugh and to cry with.  She also writes in a way where the reader doesn’t want to put the book down, because you want to know where Farewell is taking you next. Part pure fiction, part human interest story, this book is must read. "
                                                                                                                                                                               -Suzanne Gattis, Pacific Book Review

____________________________________________________________________________________________
                                                                                                                           

ROOTLESS: AN ACADEMIC EXCURSION

Novelist Farewell (In the Lighthouse, 2012, etc.) gathers together a covey of academics (and one outsider) who are literally on the trail of the mysterious Henry Radcliff, a Victorian novelist.

Radcliff wrote only one book, and there is only one extant copy. (A secretive collector allowed that one copy to be reprinted and then squirreled the original back away.) Brendan Jones, a crude, outspoken American journalist, has written a biography of Radcliff. Dame Agatha Peel, doyenne of British biographers, is working on her own Radcliff biography. The rest are a motley crew—young professorial strivers, mumbling older ones, hangers-on and a mysterious Frenchwoman. The narrator and protagonist is Sarah Bolton, an assistant professor at a backwater college in Ohio, who is pinning her tenure hopes on her feminist Radcliff scholarship. But she becomes more and more conflicted as the tour proceeds and also as she is drawn, against her best instincts, to bearlike philistine Jones. This is as much Sarah’s journey of self-discovery as it is a pursuit of Henry Radcliff. Jones and the egotistical Dame Agatha are of course the perfect foils for one another, and most of the others have their own agendas as they traipse across the continent visiting places that Prince Roniakowski, Radcliff’s romantic hero, had blessed with his presence. These people often confuse fiction and reality, take themselves much too seriously and generally behave like asses. Along the way, the only portrait of Radcliff seems to come to light, and a letter (in his totally illegible handwriting) has been found. More than that, it would be unfair to reveal, except that there is a really startling revelation toward the end, followed, possibly, by a final twist. Farewell is wicked good: The first chapter, for example, is a tour de force in perceptive writing that reveals Sarah despite herself.

A clever contribution to that popular subgenre, the satirical academic novel.

                                                                                                                                                 -Kirkus Reviews
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeanne-farewell/rootless-farewell/