When the Rain Ends: a mother and daughter learn to navigate one of life's toughest storms together

When the Rain Ends by Mary Ellen Taylor is a story of a mother and daughter who must learn to navigate one of life’s toughest storms together. After the sudden death of her ex-husband, Dani Peterson learns that she is slowly losing her vision which has left her feeling adrift. Life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina is just a painful reminder. Along with Bella, her grief stricken twelve year old daughter, Dani buys an old farm near the Virginia state line. While Bella is not happy with the drastic change, Dani is more determined to rise to the challenge. Soon the summer brings them new challenges, new friends, and the possibility of a new love. Can they learn that every storm can be weather as long as they do it together? Are sunny skies in their future after so much wind and rain? 

When the Rain Ends held so much promise that I was eager to begin reading. It soon became apparent that the book would not live up to the synopsis. This story had so much potential as the topic of grief is prevalent throughout and yet I found it hard to connect with any of the characters. Dani was okay as a mom who was trying to help her daughter with grief while dealing with grief herself. Bella didn’t act like a twelve year old in her behaviors and attitude. The plot was flat and forming. It didn’t hold my attention. In parts, I found myself zoning out. Some of the subplots were underdeveloped and others didn’t fit in the overarching story. Overall, I did not enjoy this story. It could have been a great story about grief and learning to move forward. I do not recommend When the Rain Ends. 

When the Rain Ends is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

Mother of Pearl: how far would a mother go for her child?

Mother of Pearl by Kellie Coates Gilbert asks the questions how far would a mother go for her child? Barrie Graeber has a great life. Two wonderful kids, a loving husband and a job as a respected high school counselor in their tight knit community. Suddenly, her teenage daughter, Pearl, seems to unravel before her eyes. Barrie is at a loss how to help Pearl. Nothing prepared her for this helplessness as her attempts to help her daughter fail and Pearl pulls farther and farther away. When the unthinkable happens, Barrie is at a loss how to move forward. Until she discovers a terrible secret about her nemesis, Michael Warren, the football coach. When Barrie decides to go up against the coach, she finds herself without support. Fueled by love for her daughter, she learns to trust in something bigger than herself and fight back. 

Going into this story, I knew it was described as “emotionally riveting and profoundly moving,” so I was expecting emotions. However, this story was more of a roller coaster of emotions. Without giving up plot points, which spoils the emotional impact, it truly was a roller coaster. It is a powerful story of one mother’s determination to do right by her daughter and protect other daughters from the same situation. I loved the Christian faith aspect. It wasn’t overdone. It was a great and honest portrayal of faith and even the resistance to such a faith. I enjoyed all the characters especially Jackie who becomes a source of comfort for Barrie. I also enjoyed the double meaning of the title which is fairly subtle if you aren’t looking for it. I enjoyed this book so much! I highly, highly recommend Mother of Pearl. 

Mother of Pearl is available in paperback and eBook

The Skylark's Secret: a mother's secret and a daughter's search for home

The Skylark’s Secret by Fiona Vaply is a story about a daughter’s journey to discover the secrets her mother held so close. Loch Ewe, 1940s, the remote highland village becomes the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in the close-knit community changes forever. The gamekeeper’s daughter, Flora, falls in love with Alec, the laird’s son. Decades later, Flora has passed away, and her daughter, Lexie Gordon, is forced to return to the village and the tiny cottage where she grew up. With a daughter of her own, Lexie learns that her mother and the village had secrets, secrets that will question everything she thought she knew about her parents and her village. Lexie is determined to fill the missing pieces in the story her mother always told her. When she finally learns the truth, will she be able to finally forgive, grieve for those lost and find a place to truly call home?

The Skylark’s Secret is a beautiful story of love and sacrifice. Set in the beautiful Scottish highlands, it is a story of love, war, and community. It is a story of a mother’s love and the secrets she holds in her heart. Ms. Vaply’s descriptions are so vivid that I could image the crystal blue waters of the loch and the rolling hills of the highlands. Told from Flora’s and Lexie’s perspectives and times, a story is revealed of wartime bravery, love found and lost, and the true meaning of home. It’s a slow simmer that keeps you hooked as you want to know the secrets and when one twist is revealed and you think you have it figured out, there is another twist! This book was my first by Fiona Vaply and it certainly won’t be the last. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Valpy. It is an awesome story and I highly recommend the Skylark’s Secret!

 

The Skylark’s Secret is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

The First Time I Said Goodbye: a mother-daughter journey to the past to renew the present

The First Time I Said Goodbye by Claire Allan is a story of loss, renewal, and forgiveness. The story opens as Annabel Jackson says goodbye to her beloved father after a long battle with cancer. She is devasted as her mother, Stella, is stoic. Stella asks Annabel to join to on a trip to her hometown of Derry, Ireland, a place she has not been to in forty years. Reluctantly, Annabel agrees, wondering why her mother wants to return to Ireland after so many years. Once there, she learns her mother has an ulterior motive for coming to Ireland and the unfinished business she must deal with now. Annabel quickly learns more about her mother than she ever knew before. As she learns about her mother as a young woman, Annabel begins questioning her own life including her relationship with her long-time boyfriend, Craig. Will she be able to see Stella as the woman she is and not just as her mother? Will she finally listen to her heart and follow the desires she has long put aside?

The First Time I Said Goodbye is a story of a mother and daughter, who in their own loss, find a way to connect in ways they never connected before. With the storyline switching between the summer of 2010 and the years of 1959-1962, we see Stella as a young woman in love who makes a fateful decision which brought her Ireland again. It was not what I expected when I picked up the book. I have read reunion stories before and thought it would be more a romance than a mother-daughter story. I enjoyed it as many children never truly see their parents as the individuals they were before children, with hopes and dreams and dealing with decisions of the past. One of my favorite moments in the story is when Stella’s mother Kathleen tells her “When Life says give up, Hope whispers ‘Try it one more time.’” This is essentially the theme of the story: to try one more time. One factor I did not like is that the story slowly builds up to a lover’s reunion only to be rushed at the end and it felt unsatisfying. However, I do recommend The First Time I Said Goodbye for its beautiful setting and the characters’ personal journeys.

The First Time I Said Goodbye

is available in paperback and eBook

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: an unforgettable father-daughter story

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti is the story of a father and daughter on a path to the past. Louise “Loo” Hawley is 12 years ago at the start of the story when her father teaches her to shoot a gun just as he taught her mom. Her mom died when she was very little and they have been living on the road ever since. Until one day, her father, Samuel “Hawley”, decides to move to Olympus, Massachusetts, her mother’s hometown. There they met her grandmother, her mother’s mother, Mabel and they are not welcome. Soon they “settle in” as Hawley gets a job and Loo attends school. Soon trouble starts for both of them and they are seen as the outcasts in town. Loo soon makes friends with a local boy and she begins to visit her grandmother and learns the truth about her past and her mother’s death. Will Loo confront her father with what she has learned? Will she be able to understand her father’s reasoning?

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a great story about life, love and difficult choices. In the story, you see that Hawley truly loves his daughter and deeply mourns his wife. But he has only lived one life: a life on the road and a life on the edge. Loo is a rough and rumble type of girl having been raised on the road. The reader watches as she learns the truth about her past and experiences new feelings and situations. I highly recommend The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. The story moves back and forth in time as we learn what type of life Hawley has led and the road that brought him to the present.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

is available on Amazon

in hardcover and on the Kindle

The Food of Love: one family's crisis and the power of food

The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse is the emotional story of one family’s struggle as one of them battles anorexia. Freya Braithwaite is a freelance food writer and seemly has the perfect life. She is still desperately in love with her husband, Lockie, of 19 years. Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, is ready to take her exams and head to university. Her youngest daughter, Lexi, who despite her struggles with dyslexia, seems to be doing well. Until one day when Freya is called to Lexi’s school and the principal informs her that she suspects Lexi is anorexic. Soon the family is thrown into the battle for Lexi’s life where food is her enemy as well as her cure. Will Freya be able to help Lexi? Will Lexi be able to overcome the powerful hold that anorexia has taken over her life?

The Food of Love is a powerful and emotional story about the struggles and dangers of anorexia. The book explores the mental thought processes and the distorted thinking involved. The story also explores the impact the disease has on the loved ones and their lives. The Food of Love is an emotional, shocking and eye-opening story. My heart ached as I read Lexi’s tearful pleas and promises to stop and get help. I cried when the family was at a fork in the road and a difficult choice to make. I wept at the end. I highly, highly recommend it.

The Food of Love

is available on Amazon

in paperback, on the Kindle and Audiobook

as well as Barnes and Noble

in paperback and audiobook

All the Breaking Waves: a story of the healing going home can bring

All the Breaking Waves by Kerry Lonsdale is the story of one woman’s struggles with her past as she tries to help her troubled daughter. Molly Brennan wakes up to one of her daughter’s night terrors. Cassie has dreams and visions of terrible accidents. After two of her visions come true, her school principal places her on suspension. Cassie then has a vision involving Molly and her own death. Molly, at a loss about what to do next, goes to the one place she feared: home. She arrives at her grandmother’s Pacific Grove, California home. A house which holds many terrible memories for Molly. When she arrives, she runs into her childhood friend and sweetheart, Owen Torres. A man whose heart she broke many years ago. As Molly and Cassie try to rebuild their lives and avoid circumstances in which her visions depict, Molly confronts the past and the reasons she left home, vowing never to return. Will she be able to face the past? Will she comes to terms with who she is? Will she be able to let Owen back in and accept his support and love?

This is the second book I’ve read by Ms. Lonsdale. All the Breaking Waves did not disappoint! It is a great book filled with drama and family secrets, long lost love and moving forward. I loved every character even the secondary characters, the grandmother’s friends, who were only in one scene but gave the book a dose of humor that lightened the mood before diving deeper in the family secrets. I loved the love story between Owen and Molly. Every character seemed very real to me and could even be people I know. I especially loved the description of Pacific Grove. Ms. Lonsdale’s descriptions made it feel as if I were really there. I highly, highly recommend All the Breaking Waves!

All the Breaking Waves

is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon

and in paperback with Barnes and Noble

Deliver Her: when a mother's plan goes horribly wrong

Deliver Her by Patricia Perry Donovan is a story about one mother’s desperate decision to help her teenage daughter. When the decision leads to her daughter missing and the desperate search to get her back. Meg Carmody’s 16 year old daughter, Alex, has been in a downward spiral since her best friend died in a car accident after her Sweet Sixteen birthday party. Desperate to put her back on track, Meg contacts The Birches a behavior facility which helps troubled teens. She arranges for a transport service to take Alex to the school. Carl and his friend, Carolyn, pick up Alex and they are on their way. But during a rain storm, Carl loses control of the car and when he regains consciousness, Alex is missing. The search is on. While at home, awaiting on news of Alex, Meg begins to discover the truth behind the car accident which killed Alex’s best friend. Will Meg be able to find Alex in time? Will Alex learn the truth about the accident? Will she be able to get her life back on track?

Deliver Her is a fast-paced, heart wrenching story about a mother’s desperate attempt to help her daughter and her daughter’s inner turmoil about her life after a tragic accident. I was hooked from page one as I read Meg’s desperation and fighting against all odds in order to get her daughter back. The book was fast paced and with very new revelation, a new twist in the tragic story which led Alex down this path. I highly recommend Deliver Her.

Deliver Her

is available on Amazon

in paperback for $14.95

and with KindleUnlimited