"An amazingly emotional read!"

It is always so hard to come home and for Caroline Collier it's especially hard for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is she feels she has been a big disappointment for her mother her entire life. Her younger brother Jude died in a car accident when they were young and Caroline felt that somehow she should have been the one to die all those years ago. Now Caroline is made to come back because she is too stressed out and needs to relax and take care of herself.

At first Caroline is bitter about having to come home to stay with her mother whom she feels is perfect and Caroline can never live up to her expectations. Caroline has always been closer to Rainey, her mother's best friend. Caroline also meets her friend Shelby's husband and daughter. Shelby died of a brain aneurism when her daughter Jewel was ten years old. Shelby and Jude were expected to get married one day and then after Jude died, Shelby married Drew, a friend from college soon after that. Caroline never forgave her for that. Shelby is also Rainey's daughter. So this story comes full circle.

This book is about Caroline coming to grips with her life, her relationship with her mother, with Rainey and becoming friends with Jewel, Shelby's daughter. There are many surprises along the way in this extraordinary book. I laughed and I cried. When I turned the last page to this amazing story, I just hugged the book to my chest and reveled in the emotionalism that bubbled up and threatened to burst out!

This book is just one of the reasons why I'm such a huge fan of Karen White and her wonderful books.

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted April 11, 2006

Read an Excerpt

Summary

Caroline Collier is a woman bogged down in the harsh realities of a life barely lived. Stress from her all-consuming job as an accountant has given her panic attacks, forcing her to take a leave of absence from work. And though her chances of relaxing in the presence of her overbearing, perfect mother are slim, she joins her at the family's vacation home in the mountains of North Carolina.

Though Caroline loves the serene beauty of Lake Ophelia, peace of mind is not to be found. Memories of her beloved younger brother, who died when she was seventeen, continue to haunt her, while the tensions between her mother and her still simmers. Only their neighbors, the widower and daughter of once of Caroline's childhood friends, seem able to penetrate her cool reserve, giving Caroline the courage to face her biggest fears—and dive headfirst into life...