STORY SUMMARY
San Francisco widower Martin Hocking is a single dad raising his 6 year old daughter Kat. He places an advertisement for a "mail order bride" and Sophie Whalen, living in poverty in New York City after immigrating from Ireland, answers the ad. She is marrying a man she has never met. Martin is an aloof man and agrees to sleep in separate beds until they have known each other longer and learn to love each other. Sophie becomes very attached to Kat and loves being her new mother. Kat, however, is a selective mute. She has chosen not to speak although as Sophie and she develop their relationship, she will say a few words here and there. Life appears to be good but Martin's odd behaviors at times...and his reticence in talking about his job as an insurance salesman, leaves Sophie with an unsettled feeling that something isn't quite right.
One spring evening, there's a knock on the door while Martin is away on business. It's a woman named Belinda who is very pregnant. They discover they share the same husband! Belinda's husband is known as James. Upon further investigation into his private desk, they also discover he was married before either of them...to a woman named Candace who is not dead as he implied but is in a sanatorium in the southwest. And...Candace is Kat's biological mother!
The fates of these women all begin to intertwine the day of the devastating earthquake. Sophie, Belinda, and Kat begin the journey to the southwest where they will learn about the man they all married and what his intentions are. Where is Martin aka James?? What actually happened the day of the earthquake??
MY THOUGHTS
This is well written, fast paced and an easy read.
I loved the description of early 20th century San Francisco and the development of the characters.
The author is very good at getting Sophie's backstory into the plot although it takes most of the book to do so.
There are very poignant scenes between Candace and Kat that will touch your heart.
The main themes in this book are: perseverance, loyalty, bravery, friendship, motherly love, betrayal, domestic abuse, polygamy.
In the author's notes at the back of the book she includes some facts about earthquakes.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
3 comments:
I loved this book too! As do I most of this author's stories. I've read them all. There have been a couple of misses for me but mostly because they've had a ghost element and that is just not my cup of tea.
This sounds like a book that would keep me on the edge of my seat! Like a mystery. I'm going to have to look that author up. I'm always looking for book recommendations.
I think I will see if I can get this on from the library. It sounds very good. Thanks for the review.
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