THE STORIES WE CARRY by Robin W. Pearson, Reviewed by Rebecca Maney #ReleaseDay
REBECCA'S REVIEW:
"Her store, her mainstay. Her home. All the guests who'd trooped through its doors and the stories they purchased as well as the ones they carried with them and left behind."
Glory Pryor's bookstore, aptly named By The Book, was the culmination of her life's work. Now, having married later in life, her loving husband of just five years had begun dropping hints that the large three story space housing her business as well as their home was becoming a bit more burden than blessing. But Gloria? She was not about to leave. Her roots went deeper than its strong foundation, she and that store were a story.
When a young widow and her son descend upon the premises, Glory's finely honed instincts smell trouble brewing. And she's right, and she's wrong. When it all shakes down, Adelle Simonette becomes a chapter that Glory never knew needed to be written.
By the time I finished this beautifully prosed story, I wanted to live in this bookstore, sit around the kitchen table with these characters, and hash out best book quotes for the town festival. Why? Because the stories that we read, the stories we may write, and the stories that we tell are who we were made to be, so why are we at all surprised when God adjusts the endings?
*I purchased a copy and was under no obligation to provide a positive review.
BackCover Blurb:
A small-town bookstore owner finds herself at odds with a newcomer bent on disrupting her quiet life in this Southern women’s fiction novel by award-winning author Robin W. Pearson.
Glory Pryor has carved out a life for herself in Gilmore, North Carolina, cultivating a community around her bookstore, By the Book. While her business is a success, she carries the weight of stories of her own she’s never told anyone. She holds out hope that one day her estranged brother will turn up on her doorstep so she can finally learn where he’s been all these years. Glory’s husband Eli thinks she has her arms wrapped too tightly around the could-have-beens, and that it’s time for them to let go of the store as they head into their retirement years. Glory has different opinions on that—she’s not ready to give up the dream she’s built just yet. Then Adelle Simonette shows up with her young son, Bennett, and Glory’s carefully controlled life begins to crumble.
Newly widowed Adelle Simonette is a single mother trying to find her footing and navigate parenting her young son. Lost in her grief, one thing she’s certain of is that she needs to confront Glory Pryor and everybody who knows her because the woman’s been living a lie. Adelle thinks it’s high time Glory made things right. But Adelle’s finding it hard to tell the truth . . . and there will be no going back once she does.
In the wake of deeply personal grief and loss, two women reckon with a lifetime of silence and secrets to find a path forward toward healing, hope, and restoration.
-Contemporary women’s fiction for fans of Denise Hunter, Vanessa Miller, Rachel Hauck, and Rhonda McKnight
-A small-town Southern saga that features bookish heroines and themes of family, forgiveness, and reconciliation
-Includes discussion questions for book clubs
Tyndale Fiction, October, 2025
Available in digital ebook, paperback, and audiobook:
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