The Practice House, Laura McNeal
The Practice House, Laura McNeal
1 Rating(s)
List: $42.99 | Sale: $30.10
Club: $21.49

The Practice House

Author: Laura McNeal

Narrator: Angela Dawe

Unabridged: 11 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook (DRM Protected)

Published: 04/01/2017


Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old Aldine McKenna is stuck at home with her sister and aunt in a Scottish village in 1929 when two Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell. Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.

About Laura McNeal

Laura Rhoton McNeal holds an MA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and is the author, with her husband, Tom, of four critically acclaimed young adult novels, including Crooked (winner of the California Book Award in Juvenile Literature) and Zipped (winner of the Pen Center USA Literary Award in Children’s and Young Adult Literature). Laura’s solo debut novel, Dark Water, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives with her family in Coronado, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cathy

Kindle First Edition for March. I appear to be in the minority of reviewers, but this novel just didn't click for me. I had trouble connecting to any of the characters, and when that occurs (or doesn't occur as the case might be), it's hard to win me over any other way. The story was also just a bit......more

Goodreads review by Janet

Lucky me and my advance reader's copy of The Practice House. I was so absorbed by this story, which opens quietly and builds thoughtfully and inevitably towards its storm, that the places described appear in my memory visually, as places I must have been or at least seen in photographs. The writing......more

Goodreads review by Tammy

I am shocked by how many 5 star ratings this ho-hum book has been given. The story starts off with two sisters in Scotland and all of a sudden one is married and seldom mentioned again. The story skipped around a lot. The end of one chapter, it's Thanksgiving and by the next chapter it's Christmas.......more

Goodreads review by Lisa

Wow! This is a story that will stay with you long after you've read it and those are the best. Great characters and capturing story. Fantastic imagery and super historical novel. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy. Put this one on your shelves! You'll be glad you did.......more