Willa’s Grove

Willa’s Grove is an easy read with a captivating premise: what happens when four women, each in a mid-life crisis, gather for a week in rural Montana to ponder the answer to the question: so now what? As it turns out, each of the four has secrets that take time—and trust—to unfold. The best parts of this book are the conversations and conversions that occur in nature, which Munson describes vividly. Montana-style nature encompasses the delicacy of hummingbirds and the menace of grizzly bears. Munson is good at helping readers feel the grief that Willa experiences. But her characters are hampered by her tendency to give them all speech that is absolutely littered with italics, which drove me mad after a while and made them sound too much like each other. I saw several of the final outcomes telegraphed many pages before they were revealed, so the novel lacked enough surprises for my taste. But I did enjoy how much it celebrates the company of women and the special support we can offer one another.