Good mixture of romance and mystery

This is a fairly decent read about a woman recovered from a divorce following the tragic death of her baby. It follows her return to her hometown to “lick her wounds” and face up to her brother who suffers from addiction and had recently attempted suicide, and her mother, who was controlling, demanding, cruel, and had been pretty abusive to her children when they were younger. She meets a contractor - single dad of a young blind girl- working on the family holiday chalets and their attraction is immediate. She had a bit of a history with the contractor but this does not really play a big part in the plot. It’s more about her developing relationships (good and bad) with her brother, her mother and her new romance, while trying to recover from her bereavement and divorce, and put her life back on track. While doing this she find evidence that she may have had an older sister, who seems to have vanished from the family history. The story then follows her research into this and what she uncovers.

I really liked this book but it just felt incomplete. It was like an editor had decided it was too long and so randomly cut huge chunks from the book. I sometimes found myself thinking maybe I had missed a bit. There were many strings of plot left dangling. What happened to her ex-husband who was so determined to win her back? What consequences did the father of the nanny face? How was it possible for the death of a child to be simply wiped from history, in a small town where gossip was a constant? In addition, the whole blackmail plot didn’t make sense because it was based on the idea that a four year old child could be seriously held accountable or responsible for “murder”. The romance, which was lovely, did not have any great angst or drama, but did seem to change overnight from a quick fling to something serious, without much dating, or significant time spent together without other drama happening around them. As the end of the book focused more on the missing sister plot, the romance was actually conducted by text message and phone calls. Including a text message proposal! It did fit into the story quite nicely, but I did feel that something was missing in both the romance and the missing sister plot. There was a lovely epilogue that gave everyone their “happy ever after”, but I couldn’t help thinking that the “mother from hell” had gone unpunished for some pretty awful behaviour.

In summary, this is a book worth listening to, and I would recommend. I just wish the author would take a second look and fill in some of the gaps for me.

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