I don't know why some authors of today, in the name of originality, pick far-out, twisted, contrived plots that have a zero-believability factor. This was my first reaction to the book when I finished reading it.

On the other hand, the writing is pretty good and the book held my attention to the end despite its emotional and internally drama-queen protagonist. The dialogues, settings, and other descriptions were also okay, and the ending was satisfactory enough.

In the story, the main character Hannah who had been brought up by grandparents, has an affair with a boy from a higher class of society (in her opinion) and becomes pregnant during her teenage years. She keeps the baby but the baby dies due to SIDS. No police, no medical anyone is called and she buries the baby herself in the family plot on their land. A while later, a neighbor drops his granddaughter at her door, a child the same age of her dead daughter. Hannah gets the child, calling her with the name of her dead child, Ellen because her old ailing grandmother was attached to this child. This is the base set-up of the plot. The present-day story starts when Ellen is a teen, and it takes off from there, as Hannah's lie is tested, and by her own hands, falls apart.

Then, I couldn't see any of the characters and their actions as being real enough, and while reading the story, I realized I neither liked nor related to the protagonist in any way possible. She wasn't a bad person, but she was so illogical and so hypersensitive. Then, how she handled her relationship with Roger, who loved her, was also unfair and extremely selfish. I think Hannah needed a good therapist from the beginning. It may just be that the author did relate to and liked her protagonist, but for me, she was just a flimsy character.

Plus, there are also a few coincidental repeat elements in the story. The lie Hannah's grandparents dumped on her about the death of her parents and Hannah living her own lie about her daughter, for example.

I guess there are some readers who might enjoy a story like this. I am sorry I am not one of them, but I do believe in the author’s talent as there is evidence to it in her writing style.

Grace Greene is an award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of women’s fiction and contemporary romance set in the bucolic reaches of her native Virginia (Kincaid’s Hope, Cub Creek, The Happiness In Between, The Memory of Butterflies) and the breezy beaches of Emerald Isle, North Carolina (Beach Rental, Beach Winds).

Read if you don't mind drama queens and sappiness.

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Created Jul 11, 2020 at 5:30pm • Submit your own review...