... contains the same heartwarming, uplifting stories that readers have come to love in the previous books while introducing new characters and revisiting old friends in the small Missouri town of Mason ... Second chances, new hopes, and heartwarming humor abound in this book. Berg strikes the perfect note of sentimental and uplifting, without wandering into the sappy or overdone ... This is a book that’s easy to get lost in.
... the Confession Club only forms the framework of this tale, serving as provocateur, comic relief, affirming Greek chorus ... you can bet the Confession Clubbers (whose presence, to be honest, sometimes feels intrusive) have their say ... You needn’t have read the previous Mason installments to savor The Confession Club, although your appreciation of the warm world Berg has created will deepen, Her language is gentle, her stories complex: simple outside and rich inside, like a pound cake from Iris’ kitchen.
Berg is a natural storyteller, and here she creates a genuine group of women, old friends and new, for readers to cozy up to. Even minor characters come to life with sincerity and charm. The Confession Club shows that family doesn’t have to be defined in the traditional sense, home isn’t always where we expect it to be, and the love of friends is all we really need.
Fans of the series will delight in the familiar characters and setting, and newcomers will find Mason’s charming residents and small-town vibe a comfort. For readers of the author’s other titles and those who enjoy small-town fiction, including the works of Fannie Flagg.
... [a] feel-good testament to taking risks, falling in love, and reinvention ... Berg effortlessly wraps her arms around this busy universe of quirky characters with heartbreaking secrets and unflagging faith ... Readers new to Berg’s Mason will be dazzled by this bright and fascinating story, and fans will be cheering for the next volume set there.
Berg does not delve deeply into either the details of John’s homeless existence or his Vietnam combat experience. However, the competence and resourcefulness John displays as a homeless person are strangely at odds with his PTSD. This contradiction might give readers pause, since PTSD (for which he refused counseling) led to John's wife’s departure, which resulted in his homelessness ... The Confession Club seems to exist mostly to explore themes like infidelity, loneliness, independence, and longing, which are too generic to relate to the principal players’ predicaments. As usual, Mason is a refuge unruffled by the country’s political turmoil, and conflict, if any, is mostly avoided before it can generate any excitement. Some readers may wish to return to Mason again and again, to relax with the literary equivalent of well-worn slippers, a glass of wine, and no wellness diets in sight. But readers seeking insight into modern American life, leavened with humor, might be better challenged by Richard Russo or Anne Tyler ... All the bucolic pacifism of an episode of Prairie Home Companion without the seething undercurrents.
