Blog Tour: The Glass Forest

The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson is a book I told several friends about. I just loved the story and still think about it every once in a while even now, a few years after I read it.  I was so excited to see Swanson had a new book coming out- and even more excited to have her reach out to me and ask if I wanted a review copy. 

This is another book I will be sharing with friends and recommending to others.  

The Glass Forest is a darker novel than The Bookseller, full of suspense and the idea that something creepy will soon happen.

Set in the 1960s, Angie a new wife and mother, living in Wisconsin, seems to have an ideal life, until she and her husband receive a phone call from their niece in New York telling them that her father has died and her mother is missing.  

Paul and Angie pack up their little family and head to New York to take care of things, support their niece, Ruby, and hopefully find some answers.  What Angie finds are many unanswered questions and plenty of things that give her pause.

Swanson's story moves in time as well as changes narrators.  As the story unfolds we learn more about Silja, Ruby's mother, and her romance and marriage to Paul's brother.  We find out about the many cracks in Silja's marriage as her husband returned from the war injured - both physically and mentally.  

Some of the chapters feature Ruby, someone I found unlikable - yet her perspective definitely brought something to the story. She is a teenager without a conscience and not afraid who she will hurt.

Suspense- and dread- are definitely part of this story. Although I wasn't necessarily surprised by anything in the book, I found myself racing to turn pages.  

Is this book as good as her first?  Yes, I think so. However, it is entirely different from The Bookseller.  I loved the time period of this novel, the suspense, and Angie.  Seeing that Swanson is able to write two entirely different types of books makes me excited to see what she comes up with next.  

Thanks so much to Cynthia Swanson for providing me a copy of this book.  All opinions expressed are, as always, my own.