5 Deep Reads To Dive Into This Spring

It's always fun to keep things light with your reading, but sometimes we need a deep read to shake us, to change us, and help us see the world differently. From broken families to crimes with cover-ups, these 5 books are sure to open your mind and allow you to understand the words on the page in a whole new way.

1. Parting Gifts: A Novel by Katrina Anne Willis

Catherine, Anne, and Jessica Mathers were broken at an early age by their unorthodox Midwestern childhood. The sisters search for love and acceptance, sometimes in the most unconditional ways. Cynthia, the oldest sister, is battling breast cancer with Cytoxan, some red wine, and a foul mouth. Anne is quite the opposite; she is a wife and stay-at-home mother struggling to make ends meet. Jessica, who alienates herself from the family, is an exotic dancer who avoids relationships at all costs. Despite their differences, an earth shattering loss causes them to come together and reevaluate themselves and their relationship.

2. The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen

Since birth, he has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Prior to his birth, a horrific fire disfigured his family causing them to go into hiding. After the birth of his baby sister, everyone begins to act very strange and he begins to wonder why no one has said who the father is, what happened before his birth, and why they are isolated in the basement. A few days later, fireflies land in the basement, the light ignites a passion in the boy, and makes him want to escape. The problem is, all the doors are locked.

3. Redemption Road: A Novel by John Hart

Filled with twists, secrets, and betrayals, Redemption Road proves that John Hart is a thriller master. A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother. A disturbed detective faces her past in the aftermath of a horrific shooting. A good cop walks free, after thirteen years in prison, but how long will this freedom last? Deep in the woods, on the altar of an abandoned church, the unimaginable just happened. This is the town on the edge and the road with no clemency.

4. Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett

A enticing novel that questions just how far someone would go to save the ones they love. In 1960’s London, Margaret’s fiancé John is hospitalized for depression. She decides to marry him despite the impending agony and they have three children. However, motherly bliss is far from the reality for Margaret, as she struggles to care for both her children and her ailing husband. Imagine Me Gone is told in alternating points of view of all five family members and proves that the love of a parent for their children and the bond of siblings are truly unbreakable.

5. The Obsession by Nora Roberts

The night Naomi Bowes followed her father into the woods and freed the girl trapped in the root cellar was the night everything changed. It was the night she discovered the extent of her father’s heartless crimes. Years later, Naomi has changed her last name and now lives as a successful photographer. Yet the isolated town she lives in is determined to make her open up and let down her guard. Naomi begins to feel her defense weakening and she creates the relationships she’s always longed for. Yet, no matter how close she gets to happiness, her past is always a memory away, waiting to haunt her.