Old secrets that open new wounds…. are only the beginning of healing in this captivating read. ~ Sheila
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.
Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknown to anyone else.
Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away.
Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?
My Thoughts
The book had me at the cover… it was the first thing that caught me, but certainly not the last. I like first lines of books and this one opening at a funeral was a great line, it left me wanting more. “Who died”, Is the first question that comes to mind followed closely by, “and what happened?” I found myself in a book that tries to make up for lost time and hurts. When Neil and Amanda take their 16 year old niece in to their home a shake up occurs that could not have been predicted. This book was a good example about how secrets have a tendency to surface and when the past hits the present it can cause life turmoil.
This book is a wonderful example of how things that can look perfectly wonderful from the outside are now always that way on the inside. The title of this book is a prefect reflection of this. Layered in plots, I enjoyed the different happenings in the book including a surprise that left me unable to put the book down.
This book is labeled Christian but I would say light Christian and if that label was not on the book I dont think you would read it and say this was a Christian fiction read. It is a clean book with a good story line. This was my first Susan Meissner book and I enjoyed it very much and would like to read her again.
About Susan:
“I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t driven to write. I attribute this passion to a creative God and to parents who love books and 
more particularly to a dad who majored in English and passed on a passion for writing.
I was born in San Diego, California, and am the second of three daughters. I spent my very average childhood in just two houses. I attended Point Loma College in San Diego, and married my husband in 1980. I had been majoring in education, thinking I might like to teach kindergarten, but I would have been smarter to major in English with a concentration in writing. The advice I give now to anyone wondering what to major in is follow your heart and choose a path that you know you already enjoy.
I didn’t do a lot of writing in the years my husband was on active duty in the Air Force, when we were living overseas, or when the kids were little. When my little heirs were finally all in school, though, I became aware of a deep, gnawing desire to write a novel; a desire I managed to ignore for several years.
Finally when I could disregard it no longer, I resigned in 2002 as editor of a small town newspaper, and set out to write my first book, “Why the Sky is Blue.”
Giveaway!!!
Woo hoo! I have an extra copy of this book to giveaway! Here is how you can enter!
1. Leave a comment here with where you would live if you could live anywhere. *You must answer the question to have your comment counted!
Bonus Entries!!!
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Giveaway will be open until December 1st. USA and Canada entrants only please!
Have fun and good luck!
This review copy and giveaway copy was provided by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group
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