Joan Medlicott

Considering that I am not a huge fan of romance or romance-like novel, I expected a fair amount of saccharine and cheesiness in this book. However, the idea of a chance discovery of Civil War documents and an unlikely reunion of distant family members seemed like an interesting concept so I gave this book a try. I tried to be open-minded, but this book was just so bad. The writing style is nothing spectacular, the characterizations are weak, the dialogue is far from conversational show more (seriously, what 26-year-old man uses “shall” without a hint of jest?), and there’s an abundance of grammatical and spelling errors (if you’re going to write a novel in which diaries play a prominent role, please learn the difference between “diary” and “dairy.” Just because spell check says dairy is okay doesn’t mean it is correct in context). The book isn’t billed as Christian fiction but Christianity plays a big role, which would be fine if there wasn’t also the latent fear of any religion other than Christianity (the only “Hindu” character needs to be baptized before the book ends, even though she is already an active member in the church. Even with this conversion, one character insists that this woman is a terrorist. Our heroines come to the rescue by explaining she’s Hindu, not Muslim. This ‘Hindus aren’t Muslims!’ refrain is echoed several times, and it is only the last one which is given the addendum, ‘Oh yeah, and not all Muslims are terrorists.’). In addition, I had two major issues with the plot. The first is that the ladies find a box of letters and diaries in which the letters are not addressed to anyone and were never sent. This is later rationalized as a cathartic experiment – but for starters, the men wouldn’t know to do this and secondly, then why not write solely in the diaries? Presumably these would also serve the same purpose. Secondly, when the women first begin opening the letters, there is a brief mention about how delicate these documents are. However, this doesn’t stop the women from bringing the letters and diaries all over the place, half the time shoved in a purse! I cringed every time I read about one of the women pulling such a delicate piece of history out of their purse like it’s a grocery list of no particular consequence. I definitely cannot recommend this book. show less

First of all, let me say I hesitated reading this book because I'm not big on stories having to do with war. Also, I saw it was from the Covington series and I don't like reading books out of order. I decided to go ahead and read this one because of the synopsis. The idea of three woman doing so much research on these two men that lived so long ago drew me in and I wanted to find out what they found. I thought this was easily a standalone, the fact that I hadn't read the others before it show more hadn't mattered at all, and I assume that applies to the other books in this series. With that said, I really loved this book. It was very interesting and held my attention from begining to end. I enjoyed every aspect of the story and loved the relationship between the three women. I highly recommend this book, it left me wanting to read the rest in the Covington series. show less

I discovered this title by chance and really enjoyed the main characters of Amelia, Hannah and Grace. As I read this title this week, I felt like I couldn't wait to read more of the series and yet I didn't want even Book 1 to end just yet. It's a rare discovery to find main characters in their 'senior' years and it's a joyous story of the extraordinary gifts that women share in friendship as they enrich each other's lives - giving, teaching, loving. In inspiring each other, the characters show more inspire us. show less

'The journey ends when you find your way home...' or so the old saying goes. However, when Claire Bennett's husband Phillip died, she was utterly devastated. Nowhere felt like home anymore and Claire felt lost and directionless. The couple's thriving antiques business and their beautiful house in the Hamptons, the social scene and Claire's volunteer work - everything just seemed so empty and meaningless for Claire without Phillip by her side.

Claire also knows that from the depths of her show more heart she still mourns a terrible loss from a tragic accident that happened years ago. In her mind, she truly believes that it is this heartbreaking loss which ultimately led to her estrangement from her adult children - her daughter, Amanda and her son, Paul. Claire is convinced that her sadness and grief is unending, and can honestly say that from where she stands, there is absolutely no light to be found at the end of this tunnel.

Desperately fleeing from her painful memories, Claire moves to a condo in Florida. Settling down in Boca Raton, at least for a little while, Claire then impulsively decides to visit her recently engaged daughter in North Carolina. From the sandy beaches of Boca Raton to a tiny farm tucked high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Claire eventually gains a self-awareness through the unexpected kindness of strangers. Her acceptance of such kindness, forces Claire to finally confront some harsh truths from the past.

She finally acknowledges to herself that she has lost so much more than just her husband and the close, loving relationships with her children. Claire admits to herself that her zest for life has diminished; her joyful demeanor is gone. The joy she once found in living her life has apparently been missing for many years, and now that she has found it again Claire at last reaches out to her son and daughter, hoping to somehow reconnect with them. And when the healing of old wounds leads her to a second chance for new love, Claire realizes that all her travels have brought her to a place where she will never again walk alone.

I must say that while I enjoyed reading this book very much, I found myself not really liking the main character. At least, I felt that way about her towards the beginning of the story; my feelings for her changed as I continued to read the book. The plot was certainly intriguing, and I really wanted to see how the story would develop. I have three other books by Joan Mendlicott - from her Ladies of Covington Series - sitting on my bookshelf. While I'm not quite sure how interesting these books will be, I would certainly give this book a strong A! show less