Five of five stars given
When Kate receives a call from a hospital on the other side of the country that her estranged daughter has been admitted and is asking for her, she drops everything and immediately flies out to San Francisco. There’s no denying that she hopes to finally heal the rift between them.
Unfortunately, Kate arrives at her daughter’s bedside just moments before she dies, her last word “Glory”.
With the irrevocable loss of her daughter, Kate finds a troubled granddaughter. Picking up the meagre pieces of the life Glory and her mother shared, Kate is faced with more questions than than answers. But the indisputable truth is that perhaps Kate needs Glory as much as or maybe more than, Glory needs her grandmother.
Interestingly, the picture Shook paints of Kate isn’t one that’s sympathetic to me. Much as I’m usually predisposed to like the main character in a novel, liking Kate didn’t come automatically. She doesn’t quite trust her best friend and business partner to run their shop well without her. Twenty years later, she still has no real friends in the town she moved herself and Ally to in her bid to start fresh after a divorce.
But, faced with the death of her estranged only daughter, and finding herself with a four year old granddaughter, Kate is determined to find out where Ally was and what happened to her in the ten years between leaving her home in anger, and Kate finding herself with a troubled four year old who needs her now.
Shook’s story is engrossing. As Kate sets out to find the truth, she is determined to help her granddaughter. It is perhaps a chance to redeem herself for what she sees as her failure with her own daughter.
I spent the day in company of this book. I simply could not stop reading till I too knew Ally’s story and that Glory would be safe. I found the ending a bit open though. There are many unanswered questions still, though the bigger mystery is resolved. I’m not sure I’m happy with the way the story simply stopped. I’m hoping there will be a sequel.
[Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read an Advance Reader Copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.]
Roxx Is Reading 