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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Book Review of heart like mine by Amy Hatvany





Heart Like Mine
From goodreads.com:

When a young mother dies under mysterious circumstances, those she leaves behind begin looking for answers in the past—and find a long-buried secret they could have never imagined.Thirty-six-year-old Grace McAllister never longed for children. But when she meets Victor Hansen, a handsome, charismatic divorced restaurateur who is father to Max and Ava, Grace decides that, for the right man, she could learn to be an excellent part-time stepmom. After all, the kids live with their mother, Kelli. How hard could it be?

At thirteen, Ava Hansen is mature beyond her years. Since her parents’ divorce, she has been the one taking care of her emotionally unstable mother and her little brother—she pays the bills, does the laundry, and never complains because she loves her mama more than anyone. And while her father’s new girlfriend is nice enough, Ava still holds out hope that her parents will get back together and that they’ll be a family again.

But only days after Victor and Grace get engaged, Kelli dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—and soon, Grace and Ava discover there was much more to Kelli’s life than either ever knew.

Narrated by Grace and Ava in the present with flashbacks into Kelli’s troubled past, Heart Like Mine is a poignant and hopeful portrait about womanhood, love, and the challenges of family life.

Paperback, 370 pages
Published March 19th 2013 by Washington Square Press

ISBN
1451640560 (ISBN13: 9781451640564)
edition language
English
by
 

My review:
I won this book from Romancing the Book. This is one of the hardest, emotional books I have read and one of the hardest to put down. It keeps you wanting to know the outcome.
Grace and Victor are recently engaged and plan to tell Victor's children of the engagement this coming weekend. Tragedy strikes when Kelli, the mother of the children, dies. Ava is thirteen and Max is seven years old. Ava and Max miss their mother and cannot understand what happened to her. Her death brings out her past.

Grace works for a center that helps abused women and Victor owns a restaurant.

The book chapters have the female characters telling the story. Kelli's is a flashback of what happened to her before her death. Ava and Grace also tell their story.

Emotional feelings as the reader gets to know each character and their what has happened in their lives. Heartbreaks for each character as each has their family problems and emotional ups and downs.
Because each "tells'" their story, you get the feelings of adult women as well as teenagers. The characters become well know to the reader and their emotions are with you.

Some sexual moments and some  bad language.

I am giving this a 4 star rating. A quick read but keep the tissues handy.
Leona Olson


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