HI there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Here's hoping your weekends were great and your reading even better. As for me, I tried not to get blown away as we had some pretty nasty weather (tornado warnings...I don't recommend them!) and I managed to squeeze some reading in, so it all balanced out I suppose. Speaking of reading, today I'd like to share with you a book that I read last week, but am only now having the proper time to put fingers to keys to share the experience...and quite the experience it was. It finds its home in the Fiction genre, Contemporary to be more specific, but would also be right at home with other Women's Fiction titles due to the overall nature of the story. So, if you'd be so kind as to lend me a few more moments of your time, I'd like to introduce you to today's book of choice...
by
Gail Cleare
9781940215815
Red Adept Publishing
About the book...
A simple phone call disrupts Nell Williams’s well-ordered life. Her mother, Mary, is in a hospital in Vermont. But her mother is supposed to be safely tucked away in an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, so Nell can’t fathom why she would be so far from home.
After notifying her sister, Bridget, Nell hops on a plane and rushes to her mother’s side. There, she discovers that her mother has been living a second life. Mary has another home and a set of complex relationships with people her daughters have never met.
When Nell and Bridget delve deeper into their mother’s lakeside hideaway, they uncover a vault of family secrets and the gateway to change for all three women.
After notifying her sister, Bridget, Nell hops on a plane and rushes to her mother’s side. There, she discovers that her mother has been living a second life. Mary has another home and a set of complex relationships with people her daughters have never met.
When Nell and Bridget delve deeper into their mother’s lakeside hideaway, they uncover a vault of family secrets and the gateway to change for all three women.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First things first, let's talk cover.
I could easily see where the title and cover worked well together; after all, isn't the air THAT much sweeter when we're relaxing or taking a breather? Though little is seen of the person sitting on the dock, the pose seems loose enough to suggest contentment, but the slight scrubbing of sand and mud (missed it the first time, didn't you? ^-^) on the bottom of their feet made me think perhaps not all was as clear cut as it seemed. Upon making my way through the book, my theories were proven right...go me! (Just kidding, but seriously, they were proven to be correct...)
Now, let's talk story!
Nell was an interesting voice to hear the majority of the story through. I say the majority because it does bounce back and forth between yesteryear and present times, slowly revealing more and more of each woman's story as we press closer to the final reveal, but it does so in such a fashion that readers can easily keep in step with the changes. Back to Nell, she's not the oldest child, but she is the one that stuck close to home; part out of duty, part out of circumstance. Growing up, she was the one that had to hold the fort down after an unfortunate situation blew down the very walls of their family structure. Never again would things be the same, and the rift created would grow to proportions larger than any could have guessed. They learned to live with it, even if they weren't happy about it, until one day, fate gave the family matriarch's life a final twist that both finished the demolition act it started once upon a time and allowed for the rebuilding of family that never knew it needed that new beginning. I was touched by Nell's story filled with so much good intent and blind faith, flabbergasted by Bridget's ups, downs, and manipulations, and moved by Mary's strategic maneuvers that kept her sane, her heart in tact, and a family together, through better and worse.
In the end, the author wove a wonderful web of secrets, and love... with many well intentioned missteps for our characters along the way. Nell and Bridget were so much more connected to Mary than they ever truly knew and despite words left unsaid, due to circumstance, by book's end I am convinced that they each knew they held each other close in their hearts. A great addition to any Fiction lover's reading list, from teen through the twilight years, as the story is riveting, and emotional, but the content kept clean.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the author...
Gail Cleare has written for magazines, newspapers, Fortune 50 companies and AOL. Her award-winning ad agency represented the creators of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was the turle Leonardo's date for the world premier of the second movie, and got to wear a black evening gown and sparkly shoes.
As a fine art and nature photographer, Gail's work is held in private collections across the US, and she can often be found stalking creatures with a 300 mm lens.
Her first novel, Destined, a novel of the Tarot, won honorable mentions at the New England Book Festival and the Green Book Festival. Her second novel, women's fiction titled The Taste of Air, will be released by Red Adept Publishing in September, 2016. The unedited manuscript won a gold medal from HarperCollins' website Authonomy, and was shortlisted for a Somerset Award.
Gail Cleare lives on an historic farm in New England with her family and dogs, cats, chickens, black bears, blue herons, rushing streams and wide, windy skies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special thanks to author Gail Cleare for the copy for review. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title is available now via Red Adept Publishing, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
