Julie was 12 years old when her younger sister, Chelsea, was kidnapped from her backyard. She then spent the next 15 years searching for her sister every single day and just working enough to get by. At least that is what she did until she met Monica Guidry and her five-year-old son Beau.
When Monica suddenly dies from heart problems and leaves Julie guardian of Beau and co-owner of a house in Biloxi Louisiana, Julie is forced to re-examine her life and begin to live the life she has avoided having since Chelsea disappeared.
When Julie gets to Biloxi, she realizes that Monica left her much more than she bargained for when she meets Monica’s brother and grandmother and realizes the house she was left remains nothing more than rubble after hurricane Katrina.
As Julie is forced to rebuild her house and move forward to help Beau, she discovers that truly living a life does not mean forgetting the past. She helps Monica’s grandmother uncover the truth about her past and move forward past Monica’s death. Julie discovers that “survival is like a stone wall, and kindness is a door.”
Karen White does a truly amazing job with this novel. She compels readers forward with not one, but two mysteries to uncover in this novel.
Monica’s grandmother tells her own story, keeping readers on the edge of their seats not only for the story the novel tells but also for the story inside it. She makes the plot so intense but allows the reader the ability to keep up easily with the sequence of events and makes it clear when the person whose story the reader is following shifts.
White’s one downfall would probably be that she leaves some questions unanswered in the novel, which is problematic since it is not part of a series.
Jacqueline Valentino is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at JV671648@wcupa.edu.