Lemons in the Garden of Love, by Ames Sheldon

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 This story is set in the late 1970's and is the story of how Cassie Lyman, a graduate student, navigates a critical time in her life. She is developing a research subject for her doctoral thesis in women's history, when she comes across a fascinating amount of information at Smith College about Kate Easton, a woman who founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916. Cassie also discovers that she is actually related to Kate Easton. 


At this point, Cassie has been living in Minnesota, but she has returned to her childhood stomping grounds for the wedding of her sister. So, in the foreground of this story is Cassie's current family drama surrounding the wedding and-- other later developments. Meanwhile,  Cassie is obsessed with reading Kate Easton's journal entries and letters. As time goes on, Cassie finds parallels between her life and her great grand aunt's, and is thankful for and awed by the work and strength exhibited by her predecessor. 

I enjoyed the historical background of this story-- Kate Easton's writing was the best part of this historical novel. She seemed real.  Unfortunately, Cassie did not come off the page for me, and I thought that she seemed too young. For example, the petulance she feels towards her mother's bossiness before and during a family wedding was surprisingly immature. Then, she is absent during most of her sister's wedding reception because she can't resist  going up to her room and read Kate's letters. This seemed both rude and childishly self-absorbed. Also, the way she avoids her husband during the event, which he has had to fit around his schedule, seems unfair. 

One part of Cassie's life that is never developed is how she came to be married to Martin, in the first place. Their marriage is an important part of Cassie's life, and so should have been drawn with more detail. 

In contrast to the dearth of background on Cassie's marital situation, there is a lot of dialogue, much of which I found awkward and sometimes unlikely. 

In the end, I thought her life came together easily,  with her problems solved in  predictable ways. This is a light, pleasant read, but not overly compelling. The history about Massachusett's Birth Control League was intriguing.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this opportunity.

2/2020

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