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An online marketing consultant, an avid reader of  400 + books a year. Professional reader, reviewer, and blogger.  Enjoy ARCs and new releases. 

 

 

 

Echoes of Family

Echoes of Family - Barbara Claypole White

By: Barbara Claypole White 

ISBN: 9781503938137

Publisher: Lake Union

Publication Date: 9/27/2016

Format:  Paperback 

My Rating: 5 Stars 

 

A special thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the author of The Perfect Son (2015) A Brit, now residing in NC, Barbara Claypole White follows with another poignant and emotional story of an unconventional family-ECHOES OF FAMILY the darkness of mental illness, tragedy, guilt, regret, and secrets of the past- mixed with wit and compassion.

“You’re never truly lost if someone cares enough to come find you. Lost is waiting to be found.”

Marianne is a successful forty-something musician. She also is the founder of a non-profit group, a safe haven for teens in crisis. She loves music. She suffering from mental illness. Bipolar disorder. 

Full disclosure had never been Marianne’s thing, except thirty years earlier with Gabriel. Before she lied and broken his heart. Before she won the Olympic gold for teen drama. Before the bipolar monster had claimed her as his.

As the author mentions in her notes:

“The world is changing and the definition of family isn’t quite as simple as it used to be. I also wanted to flip The Perfect Son,which is a story driven by the notion that you can’t escape genetics, to write about a family with no blood ties.”

Marianne is a woman of extreme mood swings, (bipolar illness) whereas Gabriel has learned the art of emotional detachment. Lack of emotional control creates problems for both of them and drives the plot.

Marianne left England at age seventeen. This was her childhood village. She left behind secrets and tragedy. Someone died. Betrayal. Guilt. She left her first love, Gabriel, badly injured. A complex past relationship. Now in North Carolina she has found solace in a recording studio she runs with her husband, and her almost daughter, Jade.

Jade came to live with them as a teen when Marianne started a group, “Girls in Motion” for teenage girls in trouble. Darius is crazy about Marianne and thinks with love,  he can keep her well.

However, another fatality forces her back to England to confront her past. Thirty years later. She has to face her past in order to move on with her future. As her life spirals out of control, she tries to find answers in her past.

Jade and Darius try to track her down. No one knew the real truth. Gabriel, now a priest. A brother Simon, dead. An unborn baby. Demons of the past. A priest who preaches forgiveness but cannot forgive his brother and the girl who betrayed him. When things are not as they seem. Lies and deception.

With three female damaged characters, each respond to challenges in different ways and exhibit different kinds of heroism. A husband which was a do-over. A second chance. They were not going to discuss the past.

Gabriel and Simon represented the worst of her—everything she had tried to change. The guilt of what she did to her best friend. Everything that followed was a direct consequence of her secrets, and lies. The accident, her Pandora’s box.

The unknowns, fear, and questions: What if her husband Darius sees the inside of the box and decides he is done with her? She cannot lose him. She had worked too hard to protect he and Jade from her past.

Was it protection, or just shutting them out? Is she trusting someone from her past more than her present.

Marianna is not a very likable character; however, this could be part of the mental illness and her extreme lows and highs, which the author realistically portrays. Four broken people who choose to support one another.

There are many emotions, from a trauma which her family is in the dark, and a daughter, affected by her emotions. An abrupt flight from NC back to England and the conflicts of a family giving her space or support. When back in England she has to face her painful past and find the courage to be honest, ask for forgiveness from a family, and those important to her. The resilience of relationships.

“Sometimes the only way through darkness is to return to where it began.”

White has a unique way of reaching into her character’s minds and hearts-experiencing their pain and sorrow. Marianne is broken yet still tries desperately to come to terms with her demons. No one can fix this but her. From quirky characters – madness, and humor; White deftly portrays the complex ways mental health affects personal relationships from all sides- the patient and those who love them.

ECHOES OF FAMILY is a moving novel about hope, regret, recovery, and redemption. An ideal choice for book clubs and group discussions.

JDCMustReadBooks

Source: http://www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/single-post/2016/06/05/Echoes-of-Family