MY THOUGHTS
After reading two previous novels by this same author I knew I had to read this one. Hurricane Season and The Summer House were both so good. Both five star reads. Both set in the southern part of Alabama. Books set in my home state tend to call my name. This book is the same. Set in Sugar Bend, AL and close to Mobile among other places it's realistic and a very touching story.
Two sisters, Violet and Trudy, are all each other have. Their mother left when they were in high school and their alcoholic dad died in a car accident not long after. The mother made Violet, who was the oldest, promise to take care of and protect her younger sister Trudy. Of course Violet promised. Little did she know that her life was about to make such a huge chance. Violet would do almost anything for her sister. It was her job after all to protect her and keep her safe. She had promised.
Trudy was the youngest of the two sisters and was beautiful. The boys loved her and she caught the eye of the most adored man in town, Jay Malone, who owned a chain of Ice Cream stores. He had girls working for him and had his pick of any of them but he chose Trudy. Jay was a charmer. He was who everyone wanted to be like. He was the nicest man you'd ever meet. Trudy felt honored to become his wife. Violet could finally go on with her life and build a life with the man she loved also.
Forty years go by and it's only the Figg sisters, Violet and Trudy. They live alone in a small cottage and run a shop where Trudy makes beautiful things she finds. Everyone loves the things she makes. Violet runs the shop while Trudy makes things. They work good together. Trudy hasn't spoken in forty years. Not since something awful happened and devastated her.
This is the story of the lengths sisters will go to for each other. The things they will give up for each other. Even giving up their freedom. Being there for each other above all others. Even true love. These two sisters have a big secret that they won't share. All is good until the boat comes to the surface. Then their lives change forever.
This book is great. It's heartwarming and sad. It's one that makes you hold your breath wondering what will come next. Not a thriller but it will give you thrills. Skin tingling thrills. I truly disliked these girls mother. She was selfish in the worst way. To put such a big thing on her oldest daughter was not only unfair, it made life impossible for her to live. She spent all her time worrying and that is just wrong. Of course if the mother had not of left there would be no book so there's that. I still could not stand the mother. She was selfish.
There are several great characters in this book. I loved them all except the mother and Jay. Those two were foolish. The descriptions are great. The sandy beaches. The shells. The shops. You feel at home in Sugar Bend, Alabama. Like you belong.
Thank you #NetGalley, #LaruenKDenton, #HarperMuse for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
5 stars and a very high recommendation. It's a beautiful story of love and hope.
SYNOPSIS
A hidden past isn’t past at all.
Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend, Alabama, since a night forty years ago that stole Trudy’s voice and cemented Violet’s role as her sister’s fierce and loyal protector. Now Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking through notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of the one great love she gave up to keep her sister safe.
Eighteen-year-old Maya knows where everyone else belongs, but she’s been searching for her own place since her grandmother died seven years ago. Moving in and out of strangers’ houses has left her exhausted. After seeing a flyer on a gas station window for a place called Sugar Bend, Maya chooses to follow the strange pull she feels and finds herself on the doorstep of an art shop called Two Sisters.
When a boat rises to the surface of Little River in the middle of the night, the present and no-longer-buried past collide, and the future becomes uncertain for Maya, Violet, and Trudy. As history creeps continuously closer to the present and old secrets come to light, the sisters must decide to face the truth of what happened that night forty years ago, or risk losing each other and those they’ve come to love.
USA TODAY bestselling author Lauren K. Denton delivers another distinctly Southern story that shimmers with beauty and possibility.
“Denton is a masterful storyteller who makes magic on every perfect page.” —Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Veil
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