Recommended for those who enjoy fashion, cocktail hour, and a focus on interesting older characters
A careening Porsche Boxster. A spray of shattered glass. The next thing 79-year-old fashion designer Norma McKinsey knows, she’s lying helpless in a hospital room.
Kevin, her son, sits by her hospital bedside—but only in her imagination. The real Kevin is an addict she hasn’t seen in twenty-five years. And knows a secret from her past.
Her other son, Charles, wants to move her to a nursing home. But she can’t bear to lose her Oakland Hills mansion and its view of San Francisco Bay. If only Kevin were with her again, then maybe he could help her stay put.
She longs to reconcile with Kevin before it’s too late. To track him down, she’ll have to deceive the people closest to her. The journey leads her to a moment of reckoning … a Blue Hour …
This book is a lovely warm hug – it’ll be perfect for snuggling up to with a cup of tea on a cold November evening.
‘Norma and the Blue Hour’ is great for showing a wide range of different relationships, without making them the focus of the whole novel. I loved the normalisation of both same-sex relationships and multi-generational friendships and that the characters are, on the whole, supportive of each other – there is a lot of love shown in this book, whether between siblings, married couples, or friends, and I enjoyed this aspect.
I loved how Norma and Julie hadn’t been slowed down by their age, and I found their portrayal as vibrant and well-respected people in their community to be really refreshing. Alex was probably my least favourite character however, as he was just so thoroughly ‘nice’ and rather naïve. I found him rather insipid at times, and I wanted him to show a bit of backbone in some of the situations.
There is a lot of time spent exploring emotions and rather trivial matters earlier in the book (which did help with the character-building) but then the ending – which was really quite dramatic – seemed to be very much rushed. I would have liked another 50 pages or so to find out what happened next with Norma and Kevin, and would also have appreciated more on Kevin’s backstory.
Despite finding the plot somewhat far-fetched and convoluted at times, I did enjoy reading this family-based drama. It’s perfect for when you want a gentler read with a happy ending.
Thank you to Chris Delyani, Solid Oaktown Books, and NetGalley UK for this ARC in return for my honest review.
