Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald

Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald (January 7, 2020 / Sourcebooks)

[I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

“This is a charming tale of folks who reunite at a ramshackle roadside motel in Pine Creek, Oregon, after the unfortunate death of Henny, who isn’t going to let a tiny thing like death stop her from living fully—not when her friends and her little town need her the most.” I was so excited to see that Katarina Bivald had released another novel because my book-loving heart swooned for The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. In Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins, Bivald returns to a small town setting and a community at odds with change. When four high school students (Henny, Michael, MacKenzie, and Camila) band together in the early ’90s to protest their town’s majority vote against LGBTQ citizens, they create a group whose ties will last for decades. After spending a summer building cabins at the local Pine Creek Motel their group disbands with Michael traveling the world and becoming a famous geologist, Camila fleeing to NYC, and Henny and MacKenzie taking over management at the motel. The novel begins with Henny’s accidental death and continues with her as an omniscient narrator giving both comical and painful insights into the complex relationships between characters. Initially, she can’t figure out why she’s still “here” after her funeral, but Henny quickly realizes it is to help her friends find happiness again.