Carol Fragale Brill

Carol Brill, MFA, had been a human resources and leadership development professional for 25 years. Ms. Brill is the author of two novels, Peace by Piece and Cape Maybe and a number of published short stories and essays as well as articles on the craft of writing. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Book Reviews by Carol Fragale Brill

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It is 1969 and 16-year-old Lucy Gold has never been a motivated student.

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What happens when a creative woman does what she's supposed to instead of what she wants most?

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Kate and Hannah have been best friends since the day in fifth grade when Hannah stood up for Kate after a boy tried to look up her dress.

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Nanette O’Hare is the only child of privileged suburban parents, earnestly studying and earning high grades, scoring goals and breaking records on her high school soccer team.

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There is a well-crafted tenderness in Jane Hamilton’s The Excellent Lombards that teases out the drama in ordinary life and quietly lulls the reader into Mary Frances “Frankie” Lombard’s w

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The Ramblers is populated with a cast of requisite women’s lit characters—thirty-something best friends since college; a rich, romantic older lover; a hunky, artistic, rebounding divorced

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Ask Him Why is a multi-layered narrative with a central theme about the consequences of rushing to judgement without trying to understand the other side by first asking, “Why?” 

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It is November 9th, the day before Fallon is upending her life to relocate from California to New York by herself.

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a worthwhile read for fans of suspense and stories of entwined family relationships.”

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Optimist Libby Miller’s life takes an unimaginable terrifying turn. On the very day she learns she has a life-threatening illness, her husband, Tom, reveals a marriage-ending secret.

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Desperate to start a family, Elizabeth gives up her dangerous career in fire containment and arson investigation for a quiet life in her husband, Ben’s small, Rocky Mountain hometown.

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Joe O’Brien is a proud Irishman who prizes and protects what’s important in his life—his “bride” Rosie, four mostly-grownup children, and being a cop in Boston.

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Elizabeth Berg fans know her talent for creating gripping and relatable contemporary characters with their recognizable struggles and emotional ups and downs. In The Dream Lover, Ms.

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“. . . the writing and storytelling compelled the suspension of disbelief and acceptance of the unimaginable.

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“Susanna’s voice is Cambridge’s major strength.”

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There is much to admire in J. Courtney Sullivan’s The Engagements.

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“. . . a heartbreaking read.”

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“Ms. McFadden has a beautiful writing style that is simultaneously lyrical and transparent.”

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Readers who devoured Erica Bauermeister’s The School of Essential Ingredients will be happy to rediscover some familiar characters in The Lost Art of Mixing.

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“This story of a young girl’s survival could easily be overly sentimental, but never is. The promise of this memoir’s early pages and what lingers when the story is finished is Ms.

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“Dr. Fishbane’s prose often reads like vignettes or poetry from a personal diary as he writes from the dark place that becomes his world without his wife.

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“At its core this is the story of an adult looking back at her parents’ choices and trying to make sense of ‘how people with their kind of talent, charm, intelligence and privileged backgro

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If a typical plot structure is and then, and then, and then, Jennifer Close’s plot in Girls in White Dresses might be described as and again, and again, and again, and again.

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“All three teens have family secrets. . . . They also learn that disappointment and grief can transform into hope when you have love and good friends.”

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“Pretty is ex-pretty girl Bebe Baker’s story. . . . Bebe’s in-your-face voice is one of the novel’s strengths. . . . At times Bebe is maddening, but in Ms.

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What do you do with the news that your wife’s brain tumor is terminal and she has nine months to live?

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The first edition of The Everything Guide to Writing Children’s Books was published in 2002.

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The current recession sets the backdrop for Where I Belong, Gwendolyn Heasley’s debut novel.

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If you’ve read The Dive from Clausen’s Pier or Songs Without Words, you are familiar with Ann Packer’s talent for restrained, transparent, beautiful prose.

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You Already Know How to Be Great reaches beyond coaches to managers, human resource professionals, teachers, parents—anyone whose role requires them to give performance feedback or periodi

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The book jacket description of The Creative Life as a “passionate guide” might suggest the writing will be urgent or lustful or vehement.