Guest Review: Sierra Falls by Veronica Wolff

Posted April 18, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Publisher: Berkley, Penguin

Tracy’s review of Sierra Falls by Veronica Wolff

Sierra Falls, California, is one of those sleepy towns that people choose to leave. Sorrow Bailey chose to stay behind and run the struggling family lodge, but has always yearned for more. Things look up when she discovers a collection of letters from her three-times great grandmother and namesake, telling the story of a forbidden love affair.

Billy Preston is the new sheriff, a widower escaping the grief of his former life. He helps out after an accident at the Bailey lodge, and what begins as admiration for Sorrow’s quiet strength quickly becomes more. When Sorrow’s discovery brings fame to Sierra Falls and her dreams of a better life are within reach, one too many “accidents” have Billy wondering whether someone is willing to kill to keep them off the map…

Sorrow Bailey is the youngest of three children. Her siblings both took off for different reasons but that left Sorrow to help with the family business – a lodge and tavern in Sierra Falls – and also taking care of her father who had a stroke about 10 years before this book started. He’s a grumpy old fart and is stuck in his ways. He doesn’t want anything done to the lodge and tavern that hadn’t been done before and this is a bit frustrating for Sorrow as she would love to make changes to the place – especially to the menu.

When a heavy branch falls through their attic Sorrow heads up to move the antique trunks with all of their ancestors treasures. In one of the trunks she finds some old letters that were written by her three times great grandmother, Sorrow Crabtree. These letters begin a fervor among the historical society and they plan to use them to bring people to the town for the spring fair.

When the book begins Sorrow is dating young wealthy Damien. She’s a bit frustrated with him as he doesn’t seem to listen to her – he just wants sex. He does take great care of the family but that doesn’t seem like it’s enough. Enter new Sheriff in town, Billy Preston. He’s about 12 years older than Sorrow but the pair have an instant connection. Billy denies any feelings he might have for Sorrow because A) She has a boyfriend, but more importantly is B) He’s still grieving over the death of his wife 3 years earlier. Despite Billy’s thoughts that he shouldn’t be anywhere near Sorrow he can’t stop himself by going around to the tavern on a regular basis. Soon Sorrow breaks up with Damien and she and Billy start to get to know each other better. Billy also doesn’t believe that the “accidents” that keep happening around the lodge are actually accidents and he wants to find out who’s behind it all.

There were quite a few things going on in this book and though individually they were all interesting stories I felt like there were just too many to make any of them truly wonderful.

First there was the Sorrow and Billy relationship – with Damien bringing up the rear. I thought at first glance that Damien was kind of an ass. He was self-centered to a point but he really did care about Sorrow and her family – he just showed it in different ways. I liked Billy a lot but when he finally decided to go for it with Sorrow he was so overly intense at one point I thought it was a bit creepy. The creepiness calmed down but he was still very intense.

Then there was a story about a townsperson, Marlene, who is taking care of her mother who has Alzheimer’s as well as her two aged aunts. Marlene is trying to get over the desertion of her husband. Sully is the cook at the tavern and he has feelings for Marlene. Their story followed their relationship as well as the relationship between Marlene and her mother. 

Then we had Sorrow’s sister who had left town almost as soon as she graduated and had become a Marketing VP in Silicone Valley. She returns home for reasons that don’t come to light until later in the book but she and Sorrow have a contentious relationship. Sorrow felt deserted by her siblings and felt like she was left holding the bag so to speak. The pair argued like children on a regular basis throughout the book and it was so immature. I know they had issues and when siblings argue they tend to revert to children but it got old very fast.

Then there was Sorrow’s parents. Her mother and father loved Sorrow but her father had a strange way of showing it. Sorrow longed to cook for the tavern as she had taught herself to cook as a getaway for herself but her father just didn’t believe that anyone would like it and really was kind of derogatory toward her because of it. He was grumpy and crotchety most of the time because of his stroke and thought himself more feeble than he was. Billy really gave him shit about the way he acted both to his wife and to Sorrow and I loved that.  When pushed came to shove the dad, Bear, came through for not only Sorrow but for his tavern and that made me extremely happy.

Then there was the “accidents” that were happening around the lodge that were aimed at Sorrow. Sorrow’s parents didn’t believe that anything was done on purpose but Billy was determined to find out who it was.

The letters that were found by Sorrow were an interesting part of the story as well but frankly I would have liked to have spent more time on those and less on other things.

While the story was well written I didn’t end up liking the many varied story lines throughout the book. I would have liked to have concentrated on one or two rather than jumping from side story to side story.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Berkley Sensation. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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