By Lorna Barrett
Published June 2021
372 Pages
Trish is just beginning to recover from the loss of her daughter when her husband announces he’s in love with another woman. Reeling from his departure, Trish escapes to her best friend Karen’s summer home on the French Riviera, where she meets Patrick, a man who might be able to help put her past behind him. Despite the attraction, Trish returns to her real life in Dublin, convinced she’ll never see him again.
Karen is, by all accounts, successful. She’s the head of Dublin’s most exclusive private maternity hospital and Director of a charity that builds orphanages in Sierra Leone. She’s also about to marry Richard, a man who is perfect on paper and happy to accommodate her grueling schedule. But is he too good to be true?
When Karen’s daughter comes in search of her birth mother, secrets long buried will be revealed, bringing to light deceptions that will change Karen and Trish’s lives in ways they never could have expected.
There’s a lot going on in this book. Either Trish or Karen could have commanded an entire novel just with their own storyline. Granted, several of the characters are intertwined in both main plots, but I think with a little juggling, this would have made a great two-book series – one for Trish and one for Karen. Because there might have been too much packed in here. There were several plot points that the author skimmed through that I would have loved for her to have explored deeper. But we probably would have had a 500-page book if everything had been fleshed out. Still, I would have liked Trish’s romance and feelings for Patrick, or the chapters with Trish’s family, to have been handled less hastily than they were.
I also think this could (and probably should) have been presented with no more than three points of view – Trish, Karen, and Olivia (Karen’s daughter). That might have forced the author to dig deeper into each character, rather than switching points of view when convenient. One oddity I noted was that even though the first several chapters remained firmly in one point of view, from about the middle of the book on, the characters would head hop, primarily in the last few paragraphs of each chapter.
While this was a good story, I don’t think it lived up to what it could have been. I was also on the fence if it should be considered women’s fiction or chick lit/romance. The beginning chapters were heavy and some of the issues were deep, but this was very much a happily ever after sort of book, so hopefully I’ll have decided before I post this review. I may just go with both.
In the end, I rated this book 2.25 stars. ⭐⭐+
I’d like to thank BookSirens for the Advance Reader Copy and I’ve left this review voluntarily and honestly.
Until next time, thank you for visiting.
My rating system:
5 stars – Wow, I could not stop thinking about this book and/or I wish I’d writtn it.
4 stars – This was an awesome novel, I’d recommend it to friends.
3 stars – This was a good novel, I will look for more by this author.
2 stars – An okay novel, but I probably won’t look for anything else by the author.
Ann Dudzinski 