At the Corner of King Street

"It seems like Addie Morgan's family has been cursed for as long as they have been in Virginia. Half of the girls born into her family develop a severe form of bipolar disorder as teenagers, including Addie's late mother and her sister, Janet. A few years back, Addie stopped playing Ms. Fix-it for her sister and fled to the mountains. She has a job, boyfriends, and plans for the rest of her life when she gets dragged back to Alexandria (temporarily!) to deal with Janet's latest drama: a baby girl. While trying to keep the child alive until somebody more qualified comes along, Addie makes some chance discoveries that may shed light on that old family curse before it comes for her niece.<br/><br/><br/>Addie Morgan and her ex-brother-in-law Zeb Talbott are great characters. As somebody with a family member who is bipolar (thankfully without the delusions that the Shire-clan women are subjected to), I relate to the frustration they feel. Aunt Grace as a character was more convenient than real, but the inclusion of the McRae sisters from a previous series created a support system for Addie that actually worked. They felt like more of her family than any of her blood relatives, save the baby. Watching Addie realize she had help as she made the major decision of whether to embrace this chaos in Alexandria or go back to the winery was so nice and made her eventual choice a natural conclusion.<br/><br/><br/>Overall, I liked this book and am anxiously awaiting the second book (<i>The View from Prince Street</i>, but it seems as though <i>King Street</i> ends rather abruptly. The climax felt like it hit far past a point that allowed any amount of resolution and the plot is left too loose. <br/><br/>The interludes from Addie's ancestor develop quite a bit of intrigue though I did wish for a bit more from them if they were going to happen between every chapter.<br/><br/><br/>I'm unhappy with the choice to anachronistically refer to US Route 1 by its current name instead of the name in 2015 when the book was set. The name change to Richmond Hwy didn't happen until 2019. Referring to it as such is completely unnecessary in the first place because <b>you could just say Route 1</b>! Which, as a Virginian who grew up close to Rt 1, is completely normal (if not preferred by many). This small detail kicked me completely out of the setting. The city council that advised on the name change wasn't even created until September 2015; this book is set in August and the 2015 edition was published in <i>May</i>. This was an active choice to insert inaccuracy by the author or publisher that makes no sense. If you didn't want to call it Jefferson Davis Hwy, there was another way that wasn't a lie. <br/><br/>As an audiobook, the editing is good but I have problems with the voice actress's choices. I wish narrators would bother to look up how to pronounce place names. Staunton, Virginia is pronounced STAN-tən, not STAWN-tun. Somebody living and working nearby would 100% call it correctly. She also gives the character a light southern twang that comes and goes like she's having trouble keeping her accent consistent. That inconsistency is just not good in an audiobook and can be a distraction, presenting some accessibility challenges alongside the thick Scottish accent of the interludes. Overall, it's a serviceable audiobook but this is not a book I'd recommend explicitly on audio.<br/><br/>I received this audiobook through NetGalley as an ARC/ALC. Opinions are my own; many thanks to BrillianceAudio for the read."