This is a FANTASTIC book! I’ll be stunned if anything I read tops this, this year. Historical fiction, character driven and emotionally affecting. I held back tears several times. This is the kind of story, that creeps up on you. It’s beauty, it’s tenderness, the insightful moments that have you draw breath… poignantly told, this is a story that will stay with me for a long time. Buckeye has my whole heart and I’d encourage you to preorder this and read it as soon as you have it in your hands! I’ll leave the synopsis below from Goodreads, I’ve little interest in telling you what’s it’s about. Instead I want to share that the tenderness, the compassion, the capacity to love is inspiring. This is the kind of book that reminds me why I love reading so much. A grounded and very human book. My book of the year. From Goodreads: In the small Ohio town of Bonhomie, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual she is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those whom they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship; she will soon learn that he may have perished in a predawn attack in the Philippine Sea. As the country reconstructs in the postwar boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie, but nothing stays buried forever in a small town. Twenty-five years later, as another war convulses America, the consequences of that long-ago encounter set in motion a series of events that will upend the next generation of both families as they head toward a new century. Sweeping yet intimate, rich with piercing observation and the warmth that comes from profound understanding of the human spirit, Buckeye captures the universal longing for love, and for goodness.

This book feels like watching four lives unfold across decades — small choices, hidden secrets, and the echoes of war shaping everything. Set in a small Ohio town after World War II, it follows two couples whose chance encounter on VE Day changes the course of their lives, in ways both tender and painful. Patrick Ryan captures the rhythms of ordinary life with such care — the small joys, the heartbreaks, the quiet moments that linger longer than the big events. I loved how he writes about the weight of time and the persistence of love, the way people forgive, fail, and carry on. There’s humour here too, often gentle, often bittersweet, which balances the deeper emotional currents beautifully. For readers who enjoy intergenerational family stories, moral complexity, and character-driven novels that linger in your mind long after the last page, this is a book to savour. A moving, thoughtful tale of love, loss, and the lives we shape — quietly unforgettable.

Spanning 40+ years in small town America, we meet some memorable and likeable characters, who leave us caring about what happens to them. Starting at the outbreak (for the USA) of the second world war, right through to the end of the Vietnam war, we follow two families who are linked by chance, tragedy and love. It is an interesting historical context for a book and reading it will really take you to the place and the time. The impact of war in the 20th century is really well portrayed, including the grandfather so badly scared from his time in the trenches in WW1 through all the wars that followed. This would make a really good book club read - as there is so much to discuss, with several moral dilemmas to debate and consider. Partick Ryan is such a good writer, and I definitely recommend this engaging and heartfelt read. Five stars from me. .

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. The blurb does not do this book justice. It is one of those books where all the main characters are important and add to the story. This is a brilliant read. It is a superior type of family saga following 2 families in Ohio through some of the biggest events and upheavals in American history such as Pearl Harbour, Vietnam, Civil Rights etc but these events are a not just shoe horned in, they are an organic part of the story.. The characters are so realistically drawn and relatable. The book is well written in a straightforward way, no gimmicks, no dual time lines. We do hear about the pasts of the older characters especially Everett who is Cal's dad but it is woven seamlessly into the story. Everett reminds me of Nicky Pearson in the TV series This Is Us. In fact, I suppose the book is a bit like that series but told without so many flashbacks. The pace never flags, there are so many interesting events and there are many emotional truths. There are lovely moments of ordinary kindness which impact on people's lives. Near the end, the Felix events moved me to tears. My only complaint is that the book ends too soon - I would have liked to stay with Cal for another few years. I assume the book is called Buckeye, not so much because this is Tom's nickname but because it is a nickname for people from Ohio.. It is a long time since I read such a satisfying book.