STORY SUMMARY
Quinn Cruz is married to Walker and the youngest daughter of Liz Sanford, a wealthy woman, widowed from Jack, Sr who still lives in the house on Key Lake, MN. Quinn and Walker rent a cabin on the lake from Quinn's mother. Quinn also has an older brother, Jack Jr who is married and expecting his first child, and a sister named Nora, who is single and best friends with Tiffany. Nora lives in Rochester, Minnesota in the same town as Tiffany and Tiffany's boyfriend Donovan.
Quinn and Nora are somewhat estranged so Quinn is very surprised when she receives a mysterious, cryptic text message from her but doesn't really think anything of it. They haven't seen each other since a year ago and their whole relationship consists mainly of sporadic phone calls and sometimes an e-mail.
Shortly after the text, Nora shows up in town and looks extremely haunted. She demands that Quinn take care of a little 6 year old girl named Lucy. Lucy's real name is Everlee although Quinn does not know this. Quinn is assuming Lucy is Nora's daughter. She has no idea who the father is. With Quinn taking care and sheltering Lucy, a "chain reaction" is set into motion that will change both of their lives forever. It's a matter of life and death, of family and freedom, and the lengths a woman will go to protect the ones she loves.
Is Nora really Lucy's mom or is it someone else? and who is the father because this little girl definitely has Sanford eyes. What happens when the truth is revealed after 6 years of secrets??
MY THOUGHTS
This is a well developed plot with very interesting and well developed characters. The main themes will haunt you: single motherhood, emotional abuse and neglect, childhood sexual abuse, betrayals, love, friendship, sisterhood, family drama, secrets, abandonment, loss, drug addiction. Some of these could be triggers for certain readers but nothing is explicit in this book.
The book is very similar in many ways to other books about these topics and I actually found the very beginning a little bit "slow" but once the little girl arrived, the plot did pick up for me. The topics are dear to my heart as I've had prek students who have lived this type of life, yet there are so many books with this same plot and I"ve read many. This one is a tad bit different in that we don't learn of who exactly the father is until the very end although I did guess correctly. It's somewhat predictable if you are used to reading these types of books.
Sadly, there are many editing errors in the book.
There are a lot of layers to this story. It's exquisitely written and one of the most important themes is the power of a mother's love....and the hardest choices we sometimes have to make for the sake of our child(ren).
I love that the author shared her own story of adopting a little girl in the back of the book.
This was a page turner for sure and there's not only mystery and drama, but a bit suspense as well.
There's a whole lot of family dysfunction not just with the character Tiffany, but also with the Sanford family even though they were upper middle class and appeared to be wholesome and together.
This is an important look at the issues in our society today......and some of the choices we make that have consequences for others.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
2 comments:
Thank you for the review! Editing errors in books is a major pet peeve of mine. Glad you enjoyed your book :)
I've read quite a few by this author. Though this one isn't a fave of the ones I've read it was good and dealt with some very hard topics.
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