The Conditions of Will by Jessa Hastings
Author: Jessa Hastings
Genre: Literary Fiction / Contemporary Fiction / Family Drama
Themes: Grief, identity, family estrangement, addiction, legacy, love
Rating: 4.75 out of 5
The Setup
Jessa Hastings trades the high-gloss world of Magnolia Parks for something quieter, more introspective, and deeply affecting in The Conditions of Will. The novel follows Georgia Carter, a 24-year-old lie-detection expert in London who is called back to South Carolina after the death of her estranged father, Will Carter. The death is jarring, but what unravels from it is even more destabilizing—a surprise inheritance left to a stranger, a hidden side of her father, and the reopening of wounds the Carter family buried long ago.
Character Deep Dive
Georgia Carter is messy, smart, cynical, and emotionally layered. Her voice carries both biting wit and unflinching vulnerability as she tries to reckon with the version of herself that left the South—and the one who is now forced to return.
Oliver Carter, her brother, is battling addiction and haunted by their shared past, his storyline is both redemptive and tragic.
Sam Penny, Oliver’s AA sponsor and Georgia’s complicated love interest, is not your typical romantic lead. He is soft, present, and understanding Aussie. A man who listens, rather than saves. His presence is as healing as it is disruptive. The rest of the Carter family especially the mother, Margaret, and siblings Maryanne and Tennyson are shades of resentment, denial, and slow-burning revelations.
Plot & Pacing
The story unfolds like a Southern summer—slow at first, then sticky with secrets. The pacing is measured, intentionally so. This is not a plot-heavy thriller, but a character study one that unearths buried truths at the precise moment the reader is ready for them. The catalyst for much of the tension is Will Carter’s will, which bequeaths a lake house to a mysterious man named Alexis Beauchêne, a figure no one in the family has ever heard of. What follows is a slow-burning unraveling of Will’s hidden identity, Georgia’s past shame, and the real conditions—emotional, spiritual, personal—that define family.
Themes & Emotion
At its core, The Conditions of Will is about the legacy of silence. What we do not say to the people we love, and the truths we withhold to survive our own stories. Hastings beautifully explores:
· Grief and estrangement
· The illusion of the “ideal” Southern family
· Addiction and recovery
· Queerness and generational shame
· Feminine rage and forgiveness
Hastings does not shy away from tough questions: What do we owe to family? Can love and harm exist in the same space? What happens when someone you loved turns out to have lived a life you never truly knew?
Who This Book Is For:
Those who love….
· Multi-layered family drama
· Emotionally intelligent romance
· LGBTQ+ representation handled with care
· Stories about women coming back home to reclaim their power
· Southern Gothic settings without the ghosts, but all the haunting
This book is for you.
My Final Thoughts:
The Conditions of Will is not a book you race through. It is one you linger in. I found myself stopping the audio several times to reflect and even to highlight or annotate in the book. It is a literary meditation on the quiet violence of secrets and the soft redemption of being seen. Hastings proves herself not just as a romance writer, but as a true literary voice. This story can be seen and reflected in many families. Parents DO have favorites whether they admit it or not. Worse is when parents actually voice or favor that child(ren) over the other. What that does to the child impacts either positively or negatively for a lifetime. To grow up in a world when not even your parents will help or love you or even ask how you are doing in the world. The story made me sad as an inner child and as a parent. Read with caution but READ the book. It’s worth it.
Comments