I’m excited to be participating in the book tour for Ashley Hay’s latest novel, A Hundred Small Lessons, which is being released in the states TODAY!

Originally, this post was supposed to a review… I received an advanced reader’s edition of this gorgeous new novel in exchange for participating in the TLC Book Tours tour of the book. I had every intention of having a full review up, both here and on my Bookstagram. However, sometimes life happens… between the Thanksgiving holidays (which were full of family and food and general craziness) and a houseguest from Europe who’s been staying with me the past couple weeks, my reading time has been slim to none.

But rather than not post at all, I thought I’d share a little bit about this book in celebration of it’s publication and share a few of my initial thoughts on what I’ve read so far.

Here’s the synopsis:

When Elsie Gormley leaves the Brisbane house in which she has lived for more than sixty years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in, eager to establish their new life. As they settle in, Lucy and her husband, Ben, struggle with their transformation from adventurous lovers to new parents, taking tentative steps to discover who their future selves might be.

But their new house has secrets of its own, and its rooms seem to share recollections of Elsie’s life with Lucy.

In a nearby nursing home, Elsie traces the span of her life–the moments she can’t bear to forget and the haunts to which she dreams of returning. Her beloved former house is the nexus of her memories of marriage, motherhood, love, and death, and gradually the boundary between present and past becomes increasingly porous for both her and Lucy.

Over the course of one hot Brisbane summer, two families’ stories intersect in sudden and unexpected ways. Through the richly intertwined narratives of these ordinary, extraordinary women, Ashley Hay uses her “lyrical prose, poetic dialogue, and stunning imagery” (RT Book Reviews) to weave an intricate, bighearted story of what it is to be human.

As I said before, I do not have a full review of this novel ready to go as I’m still in the middle of it. But what I can say of the first half is that the writing is beautiful and the characters are real. Several times I’ve already found myself nodding along, seeing myself, or others I know, in the characters and their actions. As the synopsis says, they are ordinary, extraordinary women. I can’t wait to dive deeper into their story and learn even more about them.

I’ve still got a long way to go, but I’m thoroughly enjoying this read so far. It was released today here in the United States, in hardcover from Atria Books, so if this interests you I’d definitely suggest picking up a copy!

I will be posting a full review just as soon as I am able, so check back here for my star rating and my thoughts on the novel as a whole!

Thanks again to Atria Books and TLC Book Tours for getting this early copy into my hands!