Reviews

I wanted to write and tell you how much I have enjoyed your books.  My dear friend Cathy **** who is the librarian in ***** gave me a copy of The Buckman Kids and I absolutely feel in love with it!  I have since read as many others of your books that she had.  I feel that these stories have kept me sane during this pandemic! 

So, I was wondering if I could buy several copies of Bett’s Best and The Buckman Kids so that I have some copies to give and loan out to friends and family.  Also, Cathy wanted to buy for the library the next two books in the Bett’s Best trilogy.  Please let me know if this is possible and how we could pay and pick up these.

Thank you for your inspirational stories and for sharing them with the world.

The Buckman Kids is a fascinating look at two families living in rural Vermont. Poverty and some degree of isolation are overcome through strong relationships and a close tie to the land. The characters are believable, engaging and deeply real. The reader cannot help but come to like them, cheer them on, and see something of himself or herself in them. Anger, pride, and destruction are present but love wins out in the end. The writing is strong, and has a clear style with wonderful detail - so rich in detail that the reader can smell the woodsmoke, hear the farm machinery, and feel the land in all its rich complexity. I read this book until after two o'clock in the morning, finding it hard to turn away from Trish, Roy, Toby and all of the other residents of this magical land and time. A great, rather quick read, I was sad to see it end. But, its engaging characters and warm ending made my brief journey really satisfying.

Gary Hillard's debut novel introduces its characters with a rare level of depth and compassion. The rough truths of the foster care system and the struggles felt by many of our veterans are explored brilliantly, against the beguiling backdrop of rural Vermont. It's a great read, and is the first book in a trilogy so there is plenty more to come! Highly recommended!

This is an amazing book. Mr Hillard brings to life the plight of the poor and uneducated in rural Vermont. It is horrible what we do to each other as humans. He shows how with kindness, caring and understanding, those human inflicted wounds can heal. He adroitly develops his characters so one feels there on the couch with Betts drinking a cup of tea or cutting firewood with Ames.

This book is for foster children and their parents, social workers, teachers and physicians. It is also for the rest of us crazy humans to show us how important it is to be kind to one another.

Great story, immersive and transformative.

There aren't enough superlatives to express how much I love Betts' Best. The characters are well developed and all show depth and growth. I feel like I know them and I love them. The writing is supurb, detailed without being boring or slow-moving. I want to visit the cabin up on the mountain, talk with and have tea with Betts and Ames. I'd like to talk shop with Zoey discussing the best ways to help troubled kids. The ending was a little abrupt but also satisfying and freeing. It was an apt conclusion.

Absolutely pulls you into the story- highly highly recommend! Can't wait to read the next!

I really loved this book, which may seem strange as the book details terrible child and wife abuse. However, the central themes of the book are the healing power of love and the wonder of nature. The main characters are beautifully developed with their strengths, weaknesses and stumbling blocks. In the end you can empathize with most of them, even the more flawed characters.

The book also is very timely as it shows the wonder of nature and its healing power. As a nature lover, I was given the urge to take another look at my life and its priorities.

I gave the book only 4 stars as it needs more careful editing. Some parts of it may have been written as stand alone short stories. This leads to some unnecessary repetition such as the introduction of the child's cash box three separate times. Perhaps a trip to the bank now and again would be a good addition, too. There are, also, the usual small spelling mistakes which seem common in digital books.

I would strongly recommend this book for its strong characters, its beautiful descriptions of nature in Vermont, and its exploration of the benefits of a simpler life style in close touch with nature.

This book had me engrossed in the lives of the characters. Although it is slow at times, and can be a bit repetitive, the story has a rhythm of its own. Sometimes peaceful, sometimes sad, but it carries the reader along, waiting to see what is around the next corner. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and have ordered the next two books in this trilogy.

A lovely, lovely story dealing with sad and all too common themes, I am a family therapist and registered specialist mental health nurse in adolescent psychiatry You kind of sensed where the main characters were going, the ending unexpectedly right.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the descriptive narrative about the mountain and the everyday life of Betts and the rest of the characters. This was different from the books I usually read and I liked that about it. It makes you sit back and be thankful for the small blessings in your family, friends and everyday wonders around you. I recommend this book.

I loved this tale of pure and simple healing of a young girl (and her uncle) from past hurt through their daily lives in a rustic cabin...a love and trust unfolding between them and spilling over to those around them...beauty for ashes.

Although the healing is central to the story, it is not without an engaging plot line, enough danger to have me holding my breath at times, and even a taste of romance! The author's understanding of the healing process is evident. A great read!!

If I could have given this book 4 1/2 stars I would have. This is a story of redemption and hope. It’s also fairly gritty. The author writes well enough, though every detail of every move is spelled out in a way that slows everything down. The story is simple, it’s not entirely linear but it’s not particularly challenging. It’s not entirely unpredictable but not so obvious that you don’t want to know what happens next. What it does have, is a very beautiful sense of place and a way of living that most of us can only dream of. The lead male character’s PTSD is glossed over and not really very believable (he has things under control, which certainly isn’t my family’s experience), however, despite all that this it is a lovely story and I enjoyed it. Sometimes we need a slow and undemanding read that is still engaging, and this is the perfect book for those times. I only gave 4 stars because of the slow pace which might put others off but which was perfect for me at the time in which I read this story. Give it a go!

Goodness,just read a wonderful read. Each character has a personality that flows in the page. Read this story in 1 night. Loved it.

It is very well written giving the reader an invite into the word of socially bereft children suffering paedophilia violence so sad thank you.

This book had me engrossed in the lives of the characters. Although it is slow at times, and can be a bit repetitive, the story has a rhythm of its own. Sometimes peaceful, sometimes sad, but it carries the reader along, waiting to see what is around the next corner. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and have ordered the next two books in this trilogy.

Strong story fall in love with characters. Gripping story line sad but beautiful. Left you wanting more. Very well written.

Well written thoughtful. It's a story but also a discussion about living well. Good insights into gaining and maintaining good mental health.

With the world in so much turmoil, this gentle book had such a calming effect on me as I read it. With the characters in the story I sat by the campfire, I wandered the woods, I drank tea on a huge rock overlooking the valley below. It brought me peace. The story took me to a simpler time and a simpler way of life…’a life that was quiet, peaceful and predictable from day to day’. That’s just what Betts, the character from the book, needed in her life, and I think what we all need right now.

As the book says…it’s ’Never too late for happy’.

Read this book. Find your happy.

This story begins with a delightful stream-of-consciousness sequence inside the mind of Kenny, an Asperger's kid, and highlights the dysfunctional father-knows-best family Kenny lives in. As Kenny makes the acquaintance of Stan, a homeless man, we see Kenny processing conditions in his society that are foreign to him. Though it suffers from some sloppy writing in places that make a couple of scenes hard to follow, the story tracks the formation of a deep friendship between Kenny and Tracy, another Aspie in his school. Set in the Great Valley of Virginia, the story ultimately exposes the corrupt authoritarian leadership of a hypothetical big church, and wraps up with a triumphant though unlikely conclusion.

"For the good earth, which feeds and holds those she loves. For the sky, sunshine and clouds, stars and moon above. For the creatures above, and those below, those that wait, and those that grow. For the life we share, we give thanks."

Alicia is a poor girl taken from her mother five years ago, along with her two brothers, and shuttled among uncaring foster homes ever since. She's already been molested and is frequently harassed by her cousin Mark in the latest placement.

Alicia has developed a coping mechanism during the trauma of abuse which triggers an Alice In Wonderland fantasy. She makes friends with a neighbor girl who turns out to have some unusual traits.

At the story's finish, her abuser meets a fitting end and Alicia's future looks bright.

The story brings to life recent child-trafficking headlines from the viewpoints of both a victim and an interceding couple. It relies upon the threat of shadowy government agents with the wrenching dilemma of "who can I trust?" when traditional law enforcement is compromised. The pace is perfect, and despite the improbability of a few events, such as the two pairs of main characters meeting up on a highway and deciding to finish their journeys in tandem, the story is a gripping and satisfying read. As with several of Hillard's books, the possibility of a sequel glimmers at the story's end.

A diverse group of six foster children is invited to attend summer camp at a rich-girl resort, and they unexpectedly score the horse barn operation. Their senior member, Sierra, is about to turn 18 and age out of the foster care system. The main plot and subplots are nicely woven together to achieve a satisfying conclusion.

This story uses measured and tantalizing descriptions of the main characters and their situations, with just enough ambiguity to keep us engaged as Stella and Brandy meet and decide to set off on a risky-in-so-many-ways cross-country journey.

We learn about the characters in bite-sized alternating segments that keep us wondering what will happen next as they deal with the tough choices life has put before them.

The imagery is concise and believable, and the pace and suspense are just right. Until we reach the end, we don't know whether the hints of a possible dark ending are waiting. Enough loose ends and empathy for the characters are left over for a sequel.

Highly recommended!

I loved this book. Such a testament to the wonderful people who work with damaged children. I couldn't put it down as i was anxious to know how it all played out.

Shows the steps forward and back of many abused people, my own experience has been of working with abused teens in large cities, very different from a country/rural setting. I'm glad I came across this trilogy.

"It turns out that Creation is all about making beauty, not just pretty stuff in the world, like waterfalls and birds, but the kind of beauty that comes from people being nice to each other, or nice to animals, even. Like the whole shebang is a machine that is supposed to churn out beauty.".

Reminiscent of the science fiction of Octavia E. Butler, the two halves of this story are narrated first by Cora and then by Jenny, as each carries the Keeper. The threads of the story are delicately woven among adolescent development, ancient purposes, magical interventions, and music. It's so nice to be reading along in a work of contemporary fiction and have tears of delight unexpectedly well up, and to have it happen more than once!

"Gary Hillard's "Road Trip" does not provide an escape from the “real world,” as we often look for when choosing from our To Be Read pile. Instead, it telescopes in on the dysfunction of our foster care system and the reality of childhood trauma, all the while creating a dynamic friendship between 13-year-old Stella and Brandy, two years Stella’s senior but her junior all the same (Stella is, after all, a kickass kid). The stories of Stella and Brandy, both individually and on their quest together, are held together by the glue of goodness-- their unlikely friendship, the kindness afforded them, the twinkling hope of what lies west, the vast strength within themselves.

He crafts a tale of heartbreaking pain that some of us are unfortunate enough to experience ourselves-- and for those of us who haven’t been abandoned, abused or neglected, Hillard’s prolific descriptions has the reader choosing their own weapon of self defense (figuratively and literally) right along Stella-- then takes us on a road trip from Vermont to New Mexico where hope awaits in the form of a beloved grandmother. Adventure, intrigue, theft and murder (!) are plentiful along the highway.

I have marked many passages in my own copy and have read them time and again, but there is one that will not leave, has curled up and made itself comfortable enough for permanent residence: “Stella was very bright and very much alone. She had worked hard at the questions of identity and purpose, harder, by the age of thirteen, than many adult philosophers had by the time of their retirement. Stella wondered what it meant to be made from the cells of another person, to share their bloodstream, to be conceived and carried inside them, below the whistling bellows of their lungs, tucked among the shifting muscles and the noisy intestines, nestled in the cradle of the hips, the heartbeat of the mother drumming into your own heart, from the moment you first connect. Moving, every time that she moved, dancing, inside her, as her mother danced alone across the tiny floor. Feeling the fear and anger in her blood, the chemicals of rage and shame released and shared in the lonely days, and during the dreams of night. What hopes did her mother have? What dreams? Was Stella only a part of her mother, a part who had managed to escape?”

The titles of Gary Hillard’s "Betts’ Best" trilogy harkon back to those of "Rabbit Run." Yet so unlike Updike’s protagonist, the suffocating world in which Betts first finds herself is not of her own making; and, rather than going farther down the rabbit hole, Betts cranes herself toward restoration and the light offered by the sun as it crests the top of a hill.

Set in the Vermont countryside, with frequent trips to shops and libraries in larger towns, we meet young Betts who suffers from horrific trauma and PTSD (for 1 in 5 women, a trigger warning should be present). Living with her uncle Ames means life in a simple cabin where books and tea are consumed consistently, and a woodstove that “pull[s] the heat of the summer sun out of the last year’s wood, shining the sun’s warmth into the room” is stoked in most chapters (that is, hands down, one of my favorite descriptions). An emphasis is put on taking good care of the tangible things we possess, which is extrapolated to the human psyche-- both our own and those we love.

It is here that Betts learns the healing process with the help of figures so dynamic the reader wishes they had more than the dialogue on the page; that we could share a cup of tea with them in person, laugh and bake bread with them, create a life like the one Hillard has fashioned for these characters. The irony of this fictitious story, complete with certain ethereal components, is how True it really is.

Hillard’s vast descriptions of the wonder of Vermont’s woods and wildlife, her changing seasons and the offer she gives to shed a life of consumerism nearly audibly breathe within the pages of these books. The breadth of care in depicting the characters-- it is clear that he bases his work on his own experiences as therapist, teacher, parent, etc.-- is something to be reckoned with.

Betts’s story is raw and disturbing; and yet, we are left basking in its enduring love and warmth and gratitude.

Thank you.

I picked up Mr Hillard's book a few months ago, cracked it and then realized that I needed to find a day or two to read and savor the book. 48 hours ago I found the time, gratefully, and am here to report that it was a real pleasure! From page one, it was so effortless to fall for the two main characters and the surroundings that the author describes. We know these people because their humanity is reflected in us. As these young women lay plans to head west, I was filled with hope and dread, fearing that their journey would be upended somehow...the road gives rise to so many great moments and events...and I found myself learning a bit about myself through the young heroes. I can't wait to pick up another of the author's works!

My husband could not put this book down, so once he finished it I had to grab it! It’s a great story of a farming family in rural Vermont. The kids are so endearing, you’ll be rooting for both the Landers and Buckman kids from beginning to end. With clear, concise writing, it’s a pleasure to go back in time (to the seemingly simpler times) and live farm life. Strong family values come to life in the children’s actions. Highly recommend!

Mr. Hillard creates a wonderful debut book that is grounded in the art of captivating story telling, firmly grounded by character development, that creates a sense of peace in the middle of the terrible history of the foster child Betts. The story finds a rhythm of purpose between the everyday routines that ground our lives, juxtaposed by the growth of relationships and some excitement and a bit of mystery. Very impressive. Read on to the sequels, which are just as captivating.