Characters make novel click
The author has crafted something special, and fairly epic with LETTING GO.
I could relate to the flawed characters, and to their growth process. However, what truly makes the characters stand out is the fact that I’ve never seen seen these characters before. I felt like I was getting to meet real people and not the average sketches of people who normally populate novels.
As a music lover, I loved the music references throughout. The inside look at Juilliard was particularly fascinating.
The writing was steady throughout, but in places, it was absolutely sublime. I look forward to future projects by Maria Thompson Corley.
A captivating book about life and love and the struggle between the heart and the mind, and the wisdom and self confidence that often only comes with the passage of time. I found myself rooting for both of them and unable to put the book down. The perfect vacation read!
Letting Go is a great page-turner to lose yourself in. Memorable characters, "insider" stories from the world of professional musicians and the restaurant industry, and a compelling non-traditional love story kept me engaged from cover to cover!
Review Rating:
5 stars!
Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers’ Favorite
Is there any turning back, any letting go when love beckons one to go beyond one’s self? Letting Go: A Novel by Maria Thompson Corley is an exciting love story that is brilliantly offered to fans of women’s fiction. They say that the opposite of love isn’t hate but fear, and Letting Go is a perfect example of this dictum, a story that will resonate in so many hearts. The meeting between Langston and Cecile might have been an accidental one, but what begins as a tiny spark gains staggering proportions and the two find themselves irresistibly drawn towards each other, in spite of the distance. But for their love to bring them where they want to be, they will have to battle huge challenges.
Maria Thompson Corley is an author of the heart and knows just how well to make the reader’s heart beat faster. The language is charged with powerful and evocative images and these images will surely set off dormant yet strong emotions in readers as they read on. Told in the first and third person narratives, this story will grip the reader from the very beginning. The writing is focused and reflective of the mood of the characters. Although the plot isn’t complex, it has elements that make readers long to know what will come up next and where the story will end. The characters are well conceived, and readers will love to watch them grow, almost so naturally, discovering themselves and redefining their purpose. Letting Go: A Novel is a great success on many counts, one I’d gladly recommend for a fun romance. A beautiful love story with powerful characters.
Review Rating:
5 stars! Download your free 5 Star Seal.
Reviewed By Christian Sia for Readers’ Favorite
Letting Go: A Novel by Maria Thompson Corley is a huge success on different levels, including thematic treatment, characterization, plot development, and conflict. But most readers will agree that the writing is excellent as well. A love story that comes with manifold challenges will certainly attract a huge following and Corley’s novel features that type of story. The protagonist is in a distant relationship, a relationship that could have been impossible in another time and setting. However, the lovers show a lot of ingenuity and creativity as well as the will to stay together in spite of their fears, employing social media and their skills to kindle love’s flame - but will this love withstand the challenges with which it is confronted? Can Cecile and Langston find the courage it takes to make a relationship successful with their kind of setup?
Maria Thompson Corley drew me into the world of her characters through her beautiful writing and the compelling cast of characters. The story starts with an internal conflict that is so aptly portrayed in the words of the protagonist, one of the narrators, and the reader immediately gets interested, wanting to know how she will handle her dilemma. The story moves so fast from the first page and suspense grows as the author carefully switches POVs and shifts scenes and narrative styles. The story features themes that modern readers will find interesting, and the subject of race when it comes to relationships is one that has so often baffled many hearts. Letting Go: A Novel is one of those love stories I will recommend for its depth and magnetic pull, a story that is as real as it is human.
Review Rating:
5 stars!
Reviewed By Divine Zape for Readers’ Favorite
Letting Go: A Novel by Maria Thompson Corley is a beautiful story that expertly shows how falling in love can rock one’s world. It is also a story about what it takes to create the love one deserves. It might have been thought impossible for Cecile and Langston to be in love and to sustain the relationship for a long time because of the distance separating them, each of them committed to living their dreams. When they fall strongly in love with each other, they’ll have to define what they can take with them or leave behind for this love to bloom, but what lies ahead is even more challenging than they could ever have imagined. The stage is set for one of the intense dramas and love battles in romance.
Cecile is a character I immediately connected with; yes, because she has an irresistible, very natural voice. The opening of the book drew me in instantly and I loved that the first person narrative voice was creatively used to examine the character’s state of mind and internal conflict. The characters are very real and convincing, and the author did a brilliant job to integrate aspects of social media into the story. The issues raised are very current, including the complexities of long-distance relationships, the problem of race, and the challenges that come with letting go of one’s comfort zone in pursuit of what one believes in. Fans of Letting Go: A Novel by Maria Thompson Corley will love the writing style, get immersed in the conflict, and enjoy the different narrative styles, but above all, they will love this inspiring story.
