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Family secrets, decades-long heartache, and healing are explored in this continuation of the riveting saga that began in Easley’s earlier work, I’ll Be Seeing You. Picking up Lauren Eaton’s story six months after the conclusion of the first novel, readers find her celebrating her sixty-second birthday and twenty-fifth Alcoholics Anonymous anniversary surrounded by her husband Brett, AA sponsee Jane, and a circle of friends. The partygoers are shocked by the appearance of a young girl who claims to be the daughter of the baby Lauren had given up for adoption forty-five years before. Stephanie reveals that she has just discovered Lauren is her true grandmother after her mother, Barbara’s, untimely death. Reeling from grief and betrayal, she ran away from home to reunite with her birth family.
As time passes, Lauren and Stephanie begin to stitch their lives together. Lauren learns how to be both parent and grandmother while Stephanie navigates the trenches of the teenage years. The two begin to lean on each other until an unexpected challenge threatens to rock the foundation of their budding relationship.
Easley has crafted a novel that is at once deliciously comforting and poignantly challenging. She captures the essence of her characters perfectly. For example, Stephanie, in typical teenage fashion, swings from child-like petulance one minute to rational maturity the next. Lauren, while drawing from hard-won wisdom, can also react impulsively but has learned how to gather advice from her inner circle. Easley treats her characters with loving compassion as she unflinchingly tackles some of the most difficult life situations: alcoholism, family secrets, death, and teen pregnancy. Although written as a sequel, enough background information is provided to make this a satisfactory standalone novel as well. Warm, charming, and endearing, Lauren and Stephanie’s story will stay with readers long after they have finished the book.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review