Review: The Burning Side

I've won a giveaway hosted by the publisher.

From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.

When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.

As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.

A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

My Review:

5+ Reading this book will make us better people, a better family.

So sad, and so many layers. Having the couple with the marriage in trouble sharing their individual Pov was crucial to understand both sides, their mistakes, their misunderstandings, pride, fears... and having a third POV with her mother's view of her own marriage, relationships, tribulations... how she values what priority with a welcoming love gave an extra layer to the novel. Showed us more than one generation. The author balances the characters so well that we can't really point at one for blame.

Also the symbology of both houses. One catches fire when all is about to crumble, another is a chest of memories about to fade. So sad, so relatable and beautiful.

I'm so happy that I won this copy in a giveaway.

"...we can only return to a place, not a time."

Get book here.

Sarah Damoff is the author of The Bright Years, which was a USA TODAY bestseller and is being translated into twelve languages. She lives with her husband and children in Texas, where she has been a social worker.