DNF: The Undertaking of Tess Blessing by Lesley Kagen

The Undertaking of Tess Blessing
written by Lesley Kagen
published by SparkPress

find it here: (affiliate links) Amazon, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Where I stopped reading: At 26% on my Kindle.

Why I stopped reading: I just could not get into this book. Maybe it was because of the reading slump I was in at the time. Maybe it was because I couldn’t get into the narrator’s voice. For me, it was like reading a 10-year-old’s every thought as she thought it. Just, no. I wanted to like it. But it just wasn’t for me. Will I try it again? I don’t think so.

What others have rated this book: According to Goodreads, the average rating for The Undertaking of Tess is 4.55 stars. It looks like a majority of readers gave this book 5 stars. There were 23 5-star reviews on Amazon. At Barnes & Noble, the majority of the reviews were ? stars. Just because I didn’t finish this book doesn’t mean you won’t.

About the book – from Goodreads: During the summer of 1959, ten-year-old Theresa “Tessie” Finley has her work cut out for her. Not only is she attempting to come to grips with the devastating loss and guilt she feels after she witnessed her father’s drowning, but her kid sister, Birdie, refuses to believe that their beloved Daddy is really gone. Tessie needs to make sure that she does before their Mom gets wind of how much “weirder” her sister’s getting. Stronger, and more down to Earth than ethereal Birdie, she’s always watched over her sister, so it’s only natural for her to come up with a plan that she jots down on one of her never-ending TO-DO LISTS. If Tessie can’t achieve her goals, she’s desperately worried that the beautiful, but self-occupied Louise, might send emotionally fragile Birdie to the county insane asylum.

Her daddy always told her, “A Finley never throws in the towel,” so more than anything Tess wants to make him proud, but despite her resourcefulness and grit, she’s smart enough to know that the odds are stacked against her and her time is running out.

Heartbreaking, funny, nostalgic, and spiritually uplifting, you’ll cheer the Finley sisters on from the first page to the last of this charming novella that sets the stage for the upcoming novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing.