Book Beginning: Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The call came in the middle of the night, and at first Vivvie stood in the dark near her bed, trying to make sense of the hour.

-- Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed.

Deborah Reed is the author of the novel, Carry Yourself Back to Me (reviewed here), which followed close on the heels of her sassy thriller, A Small Fortune (reviewed here) published under her pen name, Audry Braun.

Things We Set on Fire is already generating a lot of buzz and some terrific reviews, like this one from Booklist:

In Reed’s engrossing examination of one family’s lifelong meltdown and possible resurrection, Vivien "Vivvie" Fenton’s story begins with a dark implication about the death of her husband 30 years ago in a hunting accident. Vivvie’s two adult daughters, Kate and Elin, have long since flown the coop in desperate efforts to find happiness. When Vivvie receives unexpected word that Kate is in the hospital and that her own two young daughters need someone to come get them, the past and all its wounds threaten to smash everyone’s lives yet again. Elin’s somewhat orderly life on the other side of the country is wildly upset when Vivvie calls her and begs for her help with her two nieces as Kate lingers on the precipice between life and death. The entanglements of a family burdened with dark secrets, personal motives, and an eventual implosion that still rocks each of their lives to the core quickly surface in the face of this new tragedy, propelling the story and its irresistible characters. Suggest this one to fans of Elizabeth Strout. —Julie Trevelyan