HELP FOR THE HAUNTED: A NOVEL (JOHN SEARLES)

 

 

Story Description:

 

HarperCollins|September 9, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN:  978-0-06-077963-4

 

It begins with a call one snowy February night.  Lying in her bed, young Sylvie Mason overhears her parents on the phone across the hall.  This is not the first late-night call they have received, since her mother and father have an uncommon occupation: helping “haunted souls” find peace.  And yet something in Sylvie senses that this call is different from the others, especially when they are lured to the old church on the outskirts of town.  Once there, her parents disappear, one after the other, behind the church’s red door, leaving Sylvie alone in the car.  Not long after, she drifts off to sleep, only to wake to the sound of gunfire.

 

As the story weaves back and forth through the years leading up to that night and the months following, the ever-inquisitive Sylvie searches for answers and uncovers secrets that have haunted her family for years. 

 

Capturing the vivid eeriness of Stephen King’s works and the quirky tenderness of John Irving’s novels, Help for the Haunted is told in the captivating voice of a young heroine who is determined to discover the truth about what happened on that winter night.  

 

My Review:

 

I found Help for the Haunted a bit too drawn out and long.  I kept thinking the author just kept adding information just to make the book long enough to call it a novel. 

 

The story was eerie enough and sort of had you looking around the room and a times I wasn’t sure I wanted to go down into our basement alone again.  Although the storyline was good, this just wasn’t my cup of tea.  One thing the book did for me was to ensure I never have “dolls” in my house.  Can’t tell you why but you’ll understand once you read the story.

 



THE GHOST BRIDE (YANGSZE CHOO)

 

 

Story Description:

 

HarperCollins US|September 1, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-222732-4

 

Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists.

 

Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favourable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors.  Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances.   Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit.  Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price? 

 

Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets – and the truth about her own family. 

 

My Review:

 

The Ghost Bride, was an exhilarating ride through the afterlife in Malacca, China.  I felt throughout the book that I was being pulled up a huge hill and then let down for a wild ride on the other side.  Over and over throughout the book I was on this amazing journey. 

 

Li Lan, was the only daughter of a bankrupt business man whose mother had already passed away years before.  Her grandmother lived with them and doted on Li Lan as her father was usually too buzzed out on opium to even carry a conversation with her. 

 

One day, Li Lan’s father asked her if she wanted to become a “ghost bride” which apparently was a folk tradition of marriages to ghosts in order to satisfy the spirits or allay a haunting.  In other words, a living woman would be married to a dead man with a real wedding taking place with a “rooster” standing in for the dead bridegroom!

 

Of course, Li Lan thought her father was joking but he was dead serious.  He had been approached by a member of the Lim family, the wealthiest family in all of Malacca.  If he agreed to Li Lan marrying their dead son, Lim Tiang Ching, they would pay off all his debts and provide himself and the grandmother with a comfortable living.  Li Lan would live out her days in a beautiful mansion with servants at her beck and call and the all the riches she could ever hope for.  Li Lan did not think this was a good idea at all and said she would not ever consent to doing that. 

 

Then, Lim Tiang Ching began invading her dreams from the other side, even showing her the beautifully decorated reception hall done in red.  Li Lan told Lim Tiang Ching it wasn’t going to happen, that she would never marry him. 

 

Li Lan ends up visiting the Lim mansion and becomes even more haunted by Lim Tiang Ching but also lays eyes on Ching’s new heir, Tian Bai whom she found exceedingly handsome. 

 

Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the afterlife.  She meets Fan, a long deceased spirit she sort of befriends who helps, Li Lan but ends up turning against her later.  She meets Er Lang who is not of this world either but a guardian spirit, and Master Awyoung whom I despised, along with a host of other worldly spirits. 

 

Li Lan’s trek through the ‘Plains of the Dead’ had me biting my fingernails and glancing around the room I was reading in every few minutes.  The puppet servants scared me to death. 

 

Can Li Lan find out the secrets of the Lim family before her spirit is out of her body too long and is trapped in the ghostly world forever? 

 

Believe me, The Ghost Bride will keep you reading long after bedtime.

 



LITTLE BONES (JANETTE JENKINS)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Random House UK|July 15, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-099-51656-9

 

It is 1899, London.  A young girl is abandoned by her feckless family and finds lodging and work assisting a doctor.  But Jane Stretch is no ordinary girl, and Mr. Swift is no ordinary doctor.

 

Jane does her best to keep up with the doctor, her twisted bones throbbing as they hurry past the markets, stage doors and side shows to appointments in certain boarding houses across town.  The young actresses who live there have problems, and Mr. Swift does what is required, calmly and discreetly.  Grateful to her benefactor and his wife, Jane assists him and asks no questions – the desperate young women not minding that it is a cripple girl who wipes their brows. 

 

When this unlikely pair become involved with a rakish music hall star, Johnny Treble, who calls on Swift’s help for his rich mistress’s predicament, it seems that Jane’s spell of good fortune is not going to last.  The police come knocking – how will the doctor explain the absence of his medical certificates?  How will they explain their connection to Johnny Treble’ sudden death?  And how will Jane argue her innocence?  It seems that no amount of wand waving will make their problems disappear. 

 

Little Bones conjures a tawdry, tantalising, troubling world of unclear morality and conflicting sympathies – richly evocative and full of curiosities.  Two people act against their consciences simply to get by, and the choices we make are called into question.  Is it possible to commit abhorrent acts without being corrupted by them? 

 

My Review:

 

 

Jane Stretch is only thirteen-years-old but smart as a whip.  The bones in her body are bent and twisted like a rope coiled in knots.  People make fun of her, throw stones at her and make inappropriate comments but Jane takes it all in stride. 

 

Her mother and father are drunks and her older sister, Agnes isn't the smartest bulb in the pack but they all desert, Jane and each seek out their own futures leaving young, Jane to save herself.  She ends up in a rooming house with a doctor and his wife but Mr. Swift is no ordinary doctor.

 

He hires Jane on as his assistant tending to the girls in the theatres and dance shows who find themselves in the family way and offers his "tincture" as a cure.  During one of their runs at the theatre they meet Johnny Treble, and their lives change forever.  Both Jane and the good doctor are arrested and are sitting in jail awaiting their trials after Johnny is found dead.

 

Little Bones was a short book that I read in one sitting, at only 282 pages it was a quick read but not just for the fact of its shortness, but also due to its content.  The story was fantastic and I loved the characters.  Who couldn't help but love Jane, she was intelligent, lovable, and her politeness would put us all to shame.  I thoroughly enjoyed this story from beginning to end. 

 

 



RETURN TO ME (The Restoration Chronicles) Book One - (LYNN AUSTIN)

 

Story Description:

 

Baker Publishing Group|October 1, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0898-0

 

Bestselling Author Lynn Austin Launches New Biblical Saga

 

After years of watching his children and grandchildren wander from their faith, Iddo’s prayers are answered.  King Cyrus is allowing God’s chosen people to return to Jerusalem.  Jubilant, he joyfully prepares for their departure, only to learn that his family, grown comfortable in the pagan culture of Babylon, wants to remain. 

 

Zechariah, Iddo’s oldest grandson, feels torn between his grandfather’s ancient beliefs and the comfort and success his father enjoys in Babylon.  But he soon begins to hear the voice of God, encouraging him to return to the land given to his forefathers. 

 

Bringing to life the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, Return to Me tells the compelling story of Iddo and Zechariah, the women who love them, and the faithful followers who struggle to rebuild their lives in obedience to the God who beckons them home. 

 

My Review:

 

Eighty-two-year-old, Daniel was awoken in the middle of the night by loud pounding on his door.  It was two of the King’s servants come to tell him he was wanted at the palace.  King Beshazzar and the queen mother were summoning him to come immediately.

 

When Daniel arrived at the palace banquet hall, a large gathering of people were enjoying food and wine.  The King asked if Daniel was one of the exiles his forefathers had brought from Judah and Daniel confirmed that he was.  The King said: “I am told the spirit of the gods is in you…they say you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom.”  The King pointed to the wall behind him and told Daniel that the fingers of a hand had appeared and wrote markings on the wall and he wanted Daniel to tell him what it said and what it meant.  Daniel stepped closer to the wall and saw they were letters and words, writing of some sort.  Daniel silently prayed for wisdom. This is what these words mean Daniel said: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.  Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”  Daniel turned away from the writing readying himself to leave. 

 

Daniel went home realizing that God had made it clear tonight, that the kingdom of Babylon was finished, Belshazzer and his father, Nabonidas were doomed.  What their downfall would mean for Daniel’s own life or for his people, he couldn’t guess.  Ever since the Babylonians had taken him capture in Jerusalem as a young man, his life had been in God’s hands – the same hand that had written on the wall tonight.  No matter what came next, Daniel rested safely in the grasp of his Sovereign God. 

 

Iddo and Dinah lived in Babylon.  Iddo was suffering from dreams and woke gasping.  The nightmare had almost devoured him.  Dinah tried to soothe her husband resting her head on his chest as if she thought she could calm his pounding heart.  But for, Iddo, they weren’t dreams, but instead visions that made no sense in the daylight hours.  He relived memories, powerful memories, as real as on the day he’d lived them as a child.  Iddo got up from his mat to make something warm to drink telling, Dinah to stay in bed and keep warm. 

 

During daytime hours he could control the visions he saw in his mind’s eye, but at night when darkness descended the visions and images pounced on him again.  Once they pounced, they would reduce him to the ten-year-old boy he had been when Jerusalem fell – helpless, terrified, naked, and shivering before his enemies – Forty-seven years had passed since he’d lived through that, and Iddo spent those years in Babylon.  He had his wife, Dinah, children and grandchildren, all born here.  But the nightmare of Jerusalem never faded, never blurred. 

 

Iddo knew it wasn’t his sons fault that they didn’t believe because when they were young, Iddo’ own faith had been too weak to support their doubts and questions.  But, Iddo felt he had a redeeming grace, he would teach his 11-year-old grandson, Zechariah to believe as perhaps then, God would hear their prayers and end His people’s exile from Jerusalem. 

 

Iddo asked Dinah if she was unhappy about maybe returning to Jerusalem someday.  Dinah told, Iddo that she was born in Babylon and it was the only home she’d ever known.  She said she never experienced what, Iddo had, what he did or known his grief – Dinah said she wished that Rebbe Daniel and the other prophets had never offered this hope of returning to Jerusalem to him saying that Babylon would fall and they would be free from exile to return from whence they came so long ago.  She asked Iddo: “What if they’re wrong and this turns out to be another loss in your life?”  Iddo replied: “They won’t be wrong.”  Dinah feared that if his hopes were thwarted, the disappointment would kill him. 

 

Zechariah asked his Abba how seventy years of exile had already passed when Abba wasn’t even the age of seventy.  Abba explained that their captivity began before he was born and that groups of their people were forced into exile three different times in a little more than twenty years.  Abba didn’t remember the first two invasions, but when Judah’s King last rebelled against the Babylonians, their armies demolished everything and brought him there.  Abba told Zechariah he was ten-years-old when the Babylonians broke through the walls and destroyed the temple, and now he and Zechariah would be among those blessed to return and rebuild it.  Zechariah felt pulled in two directions – Babylon was his home, Jerusalem a distant place he knew only from the Torah. 

 

After their move back to Jerusalem, Dinah was very unhappy.  She didn’t want to leave Babylon but because, Iddo was her husband, she had no choice but to go with him.  Jerusalem had been so destroyed that there was nothing left but ruins and rubble.  Rebuilding was going to take years but, Iddo was adamant that it would be done and they would accomplish their goals for God so He would be pleased with them. 

 

As the days wore on, Dinah became more and more despondent and she was truly beginning to hate, Iddo.  They used to have such a close and happy marriage but now they barely talked.  Dinah missed her other children and grandchildren who had chosen to stay back in Babylon.  It bothered her that, Iddo never even so much as mentioned them nor even seemed to miss them at all.  Iddo, knew, Dinah was unhappy and finally confronted her, asking why she was so unhappy and what he could do to help her feel more invested in what they were doing.  Dinah told, Iddo that Babylon was where she truly wanted to be.  Iddo responded with: “And so now you’re simply going through the motions without love in your heart?”  Dinah told, Iddo there was nothing in her heart, that her heart was still in Babylon. She then turned the tables on Iddo and asked: “Why are you enduring hardship?  Why do you want to perform all these rituals at the temple?  Is it love or from duty?  Is it merely to appease the Almighty One because you fear more punishment if you don’t?”  Iddo, didn’t know what to say.  Was it true that he served God only out of fear?  Could he say that he loved God or that he believed God loved him? 

 

It is clear to me that, Iddo is confused and needs to sit and do some serious praying and soul searching. 

 

To give, Iddo more food for thought, Dinah said: “Why don’t you ask Zechariah the same questions?  Why don’t you explain to him why you treated him so harshly after he was attacked?”  Iddo’s only response was: “I was only doing what any father would do.”  Dinah couldn’t believe what she was hearing and continued: “You believe that’s how God treats us.  We have to follow all the rules, do everything exactly right, or He’ll punish our smallest misstep.  And so you made the boy limp up the hill for prayers when he was in pain, and you humiliated him in front of all the others…” 

 

Dinah, here has certainly given, Iddo food for thought.  But, I personally have known many people who believe exactly what Dinah has said to Iddo.  They believe it’s true that we are meant to never make an error, to follow all the rules without making a mistake or we can expect a huge and severe punishment from God. 

 

After years of exile the Jewish people were finally allowed to return home to Jerusalem but it wasn’t without problems as we read through the story.  They faced much turmoil and many hardships that shook even the most faithful of people. 

 

Return to Me is really the story of Iddo and his grandson, Zechariah who live by faith in the midst of doubt.  Book One of Austin’s ‘Restoration Chronicles’ makes for some compelling reading and I can’t wait for Book Two.  Excellent job, well-done!!

 

Thank you both to Lynn Austin and Bethany House for the advanced copy.

 



THE LOST HUSBAND (KATHERINE CENTER)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Random House Publishing Group|May 7, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-345-50794-5

 

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin, this tender and heartwarming novel explores the trials of losing what matters most –and how there’s always more than we can imagine left to find.

 

“Dear Libby, It occurs to me that you and your two children have been living with your mother for – Dear Lord! – two whole years, and I’m writing to see if you’d like to be rescued.” 

 

The letter comes out of the blue, and just in time for Libby Moran, who – after the sudden death of her husband, Danny – went to stay with her hypercritical mother.  Now her crazy Aunt Jean has offered Libby an escape: a job and a place to live on her farm in the Texas Hill Country.  Before she can talk herself out of it, Libby is packing the minivan, grabbing the kids, and hitting the road.  

 

Life on Aunt Jean’s goat farm is both more wonderful and more mysterious than Libby could have imagined.  Beyond the animals and the strenuous work, there is quiet-deep, country quiet.  But there is also a shaggy, gruff (though purportedly handsome, under all that hair) farm manager with a tragic home life, a formerly famous feed-store clerk who claims she can contact Danny “on the other side,” and the eccentric aunt Libby never really knew but who turns out to be exactly what she’s been looking for.  And despite everything she’s lost, Libby soon realizes how much more she’s found.  She hasn’t just traded one kind of crazy for another.  She may actually have found the place to bring her little family – and herself – back to life. 

 

My Review:

 

Libby Moran has lost her husband in a car accident and shorty after lost her home as her husband, Danny, had already cashed in their insurance policies and she couldn’t afford to pay for the house anymore.  Libby, along with her two young children, Tank and Abby, moved in with her mother, Marsha. 

 

Marsha and Libby had a love-hate relationship but Libby did her very best to bite her tongue and not get into too many arguments or confrontations with her.   Ignoring, Marsha and her comments was not an easy thing to do but somehow, somewhere, Libby found the resolve she needed to keep the peace most of the time.  Libby was often tired.  She missed Danny terribly, worked hard all day as a bank teller, came home to cook dinner for the kids, do dishes, do bath and bedtime before falling into bed herself. 

 

Out of the blue, Libby receives a letter from her Aunt Jean who was her mother’s sister.  Marsha had always led Libby to believe that Aunt Jean was crazy. In her letter, Aunt Jean was offering to “rescue”, Libby from her mother with an invitation for her and the kids to move to her goat farm in Atwater, Texas and live there.  Libby was awestruck but before she could really sit down and seriously consider this offer to uproot her little family, she was packing her van and then hit the road saying goodbye to Marsha. 

 

When they arrive at Aunt Jean’s farm they are pleasantly surprised.  The place is just crawling with animals: goats, dogs, cats, kittens, pigs, roosters, and even a peacock which thrills the kids to death.  And, Libby soon learns Aunt Jean isn’t the slightest bit crazy, a bit eccentric maybe but definitely not crazy.  It just so happens that Marsha and Jean hate each other for very good reason on Jean’s part. 

 

Underneath the cool farmhouse, outbuildings, and animals, is a dashingly handsome man, O’Connor, who has more hair on his head and face than Grizzly Adams.  O’Connor is the farm manager who teaches, Libby the ropes of what her daily chores will be.  Hmmm….I wonder what will end up cooking with these two?

 

Then you’ll also meet, Sunshine, a formerly famous feedstore clerk who convinces, Libby that she can contact, Danny through séances. 

 

Little Abby, unbeknownst to, Libby has been getting kick-ass fighting lessons from O’Connor, along with building a vocabulary of four-letter words to fight off a kid in her second grade class who constantly picks on her and teases her about her limping gait. 

 

Libby soon begins to realize she hasn’t lost as much in her life as she’d originally thought but instead gained a real family and a place to call home. 

 

The Lost Husband was just too good and too well-written to put down so I read it in one sitting.  You’re going to get a real kick out of Aunt Jean and all the goings on at the farm.  This was a great story!



 

THE BEST OF ME (NICHOLAS SPARKS)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Grand Central Publishing|March 26, 2013|Mass Market Paperbound|ISBN: 978-0-446-54763-5

 

“Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible.  She’d believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen.”

 

In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love.  Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina.  But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.

 

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance.  Neither has lived the life they imagined…and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives.  As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew – about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear – was not as it seemed.  Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made.  And in the course of a single weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past? 

 

My Review:

 

Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole were high school students in the spring of 1984.  They lived in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina.  Amanda was from a strict home whose parents kept close tabs on her and they didn’t like the fact that she was dating Dawson Cole.  The Cole family was notoriously known in Oriental as a wild, troubled, fighting, kick-your-ass, family who caused more trouble than they were worth. 

 

Ted and Abee Cole were the worst two offenders who’d always had it out for Dawson and Dawson’s own father was a carbon copy of the other two.  Dawson worked for Tuck, an old gent who had a garage and each week Dawson’s father, along with Ted and Abee would come and take his pay cheque.  It wasn’t worth Dawson’s time getting the crap beat out of him over a few measely dollars so he just handed the money over and let them be on their way.  Dawson’s love for Amanda was all that mattered to him.

 

Once high school had come to an end, Dawson and Amanda would be going their separate ways.  Amanda off to university, she hoped to become a teacher, and Dawson was staying in Oriental to continue to work with Tuck.  He couldn’t afford to attend school anyway.  Both Dawson and Amanda vowed to stay in touch and keep their relationship going despite the geographical distance between them. However, unforeseen events tore the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths. 

 

Dawson eventually moved away to New Orleans and ended up working on an oil rig.  A tough job with lots of dangers but he worked thirty days on then had thirty days off.  Amanda ended up married to, Frank, a dentist and they had four children.  

 

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson both receive a call from a lawyer back in Oriental asking them to attend an appointment with him on a certain day at a certain time, and to attend the funeral of their dear old friend, Tuck. 

 

Neither Dawson nor Amanda knew the other would be attending so their first re-meeting was bittersweet.  Neither of them has lived the life they had imagined and neither of them can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. 

 

Over the course of one short weekend, they will ask of the living and the dead: “Can love truly rewrite the past?” 

 

The Best of Me was a book that I just couldn’t put down.  Had I of been able to stay awake, I most likely would have read it in one sitting.

 

One thing for sure, Nicholas Sparks never disappoints and you know when you pick up one of his novels you’re getting the very best.

 



THE BUTTERFLY SISTER (AMY GAIL HANSEN)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Harpercollins Publishers|July 29, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-223462-9

 

The past just arrived on Ruby’s doorstep…

 

To uncover the truth about a friend’s disappearance, a fragile young woman must silence the ghosts of her past in the moving debut tale that intertwines mystery, madness, betrayal, love, and literature. 

 

“My past was never more than one thought, one breath, one heartbeat away.  And then, on that particular October evening, it literally arrived at my doorstep.”

 

Twenty-two-year-old, Ruby Rousseau is haunted by memories of Tarble, the women’s college she fled from ten months earlier, and the painful love affair that pushed her to the brink of tragedy. 

 

When a suitcase belonging to a former classmate named Beth arrives on her doorstep, Ruby is plunged into a dark mystery.  Beth has gone missing, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts. 

 

Inside the bag, Ruby discovers a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” the book she believes was a harbinger of her madness.  Is someone trying to send her a message – and what does it mean? 

 

The search for answers leads to Tarble.  As Ruby digs into Beth’s past, she has no choice but to confront her own – an odyssey that will force her to re-examine her final days at school, including the married professor who broke her heart and the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hand, who beckoned her to join their tragic circle. 

 

But will finding the truth finally set Ruby free…or send her over the edge of sanity? 

 

My Review:

 

One October evening, twenty-two-year-old Ruby Rousseau is sitting outside enjoying the evening with her mother when a courier service drives up to the door.  The woman who pops out of the driver’s side says she has a delivery for Ruby.  It’s a suitcase that Ruby instantly recognizes as the one she had borrowed from her friend, Beth at Tarble College when they were both attending there.  Ruby immediately realizes that the tag bearing her name was never removed from the suitcase and she explained that to the driver.  The driver indicated she could take the suitcase back to the depot or Ruby could just keep it, get in touch with, Beth herself and make her own arrangements to have the suitcase returned to her.  Before she could really make up her own mind, Ruby’s mother grabbed the suitcase and said they’d take care of it. 

 

Upon opening the suitcase, Ruby finds a copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” amongst other belongings.  When Ruby locates a phone number for Beth who she hasn’t seen she left college many months prior after an attempted suicide, she discovers that Beth is actually missing!  The suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts.

 

The book startles, Ruby and she wonders if someone is trying to send her a message – and if so, what does it mean? 

 

The search for answers leads, Ruby back to Tarble Women’s College, the last place she wants to go.  As Ruby digs into Beth’s past, she has no choice but to confront her own – an odyssey that will force her to re-examine her final days at school, including the ‘married’ professor she had an affair with and the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hand, that haunt Ruby and beckon her to join their tragic circle. 

 

Will finding the truth finally set Ruby free…or send her over the edge?  Does she have the strength and courage to face the unknown as she travels back through a year she’d rather forget? 

 

The Butterfly Sister was an excellent debut novel and one I couldn’t put down.  It grabbed me from the first page until the last and I was totally shocked at the ending.  I sure didn’t see that coming.  This would make a good book club pick as there are many topics to be discussed from within these pages.  I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.