The Underside of Joy

November 14, 2011
Fleeing a failed marriage, Ella Beene arrives in Elbow, Calif., where she meets Joe and his two children, abandoned four months ago by Paige, who suffered from postpartum depression. After a quick marriage, Ella’s new life turns upside down after only three years when Joe drowns, leaving her a business deeply in debt and an ex-wife back in town intent on regaining custody of the children that Ella has come to love. A difficult custody battle results in Paige taking her children to Las Vegas. Ella follows, to be closer to the children, and the two women sustain a heated conflict until a terrible accident involving Zach, the youngest, makes them realize that they each care for these children deeply. Halverson paints a lovely picture of smalltown life and intimate family drama, creating sympathy for Ella, which is easy, but also for Paige, whose own troubled past complicates a figure that would ordinarily be demonized. Nuanced characters and a lack of cliché make for a winning debut. Agent: Weed Literary.

January 15, 2012
A poignant debut about mothers, secrets and sacrifices. When Ella is suddenly widowed (Joe has drowned in a freak accident) she reacts as any young woman would--disbelief mixed with a frantic need to keep things normal for their two small children. But on the tail of grief comes disaster: she didn't know their Italian grocery is nearing bankruptcy and the children's mother has come to reclaim them. Three years ago Ella stopped in a small Northern California town, met Joe and never left. Joe's wife Paige had abandoned Joe and the children a few months prior to Ella's arrival and sent a few letters begging him to move on. Joe and Ella married, and she became mother to infant Zach and toddler Annie. Now Joe is dead and Paige is back demanding her children. The store that Joe inherited from his grandfather (an Italian-American who was interned during World War II) is foundering, so to save the store, and in turn secure custody of the children, Ella decides to transform the grocery into a gourmet deli, serving the tourists who flock to Sonoma. In custody mediation it seems Ella will win (judges take a poor view on disappearing mothers), though Paige insists she has been writing and trying to see the children for years. When custody has almost been finalized in Ella's favor, she finds the stack of Paige's letters, hidden by Joe. The letters tell a different story: of Paige suffering from postpartum depression, of her dismissed fears that she might hurt the children, of running away to get help and hospitalization and, finally, of Paige writing to come back to her marriage and children and finding she has already been replaced. History must be revised for both of these women: Who are they to each other now? What kind of a husband did they have in Joe? Halverson avoids sentimentality, aiming for higher ground in this lucid and graceful examination of the dangers and blessings of familial bonds.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2011

Ella Beene is devastated by husband Joe's death--and even more devastated when his ex-wife, Paige, shows up at the funeral to reclaim the children Ella has been tenderly stepmothering for several years. As Ella battles for custody, she also tries to understand what scarred Joe and Paige's marriage irreparably. Subject to a bidding war, sold to 13 territories, and pitched at BEA's Editors Buzz Panel, this debut would seem to be a hot commodity for January.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Halverson's debut novel marks her as a strong new voice in women's fiction. Three years after the death of her husband, young widow Ella Beene looks back at the joy of her early married life with the recognition that the most genuine happiness cannot be so pure, so deep, or so blind. What she has failed to see is that Joe might not have been completely honest about what went wrong with his first marriage. As the loving stepmother to his two children, Ella suddenly finds herself vulnerable to a custody suit from their mother, Paige. In addition, the Italian grocery business that Joe's family has run for decades in the quaint town of Elbow, California, is about to go under, and Ella must find a way to make a living. Halverson tells a complex story in agile prose, but her tale is awash in a full-throated emotionalism that aligns her more with Elizabeth Berg than the more nuanced Anita Shreve. Because of its focus on the meaning of family, this would make an excellent book-club choice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)