Here’s what I know when I pick up a book by Nicole Baart:
- I’ll need to clear my calendar so I can read because her stories are hard to put down.
- It won’t be an “easy” read.
- The ending will make me feel a deep satisfaction, even if the resolution isn’t what I usually think of as “happily ever after.”
Her new book, You Were Always Mine, delivers on these three expectations.
The story centers on Jessica Chamberlain, who is newly separated from her husband and trying to hold the remaining pieces of her family together parenting her two sons. When she learns of an out-of-state tragedy that affects her family, she begins a search for answers to questions she didn’t know she had. And the questions start to point back to her 7-year-old adopted son.
I’d call this a light suspense. It’s not terrifying or impossible to read at night, but it keeps you turning the pages to figure out just what in the world is going on. (According to the publisher, if you like Liane Moriarty and Jodi Picoult, you’ll love this book!)
All I can tell you is I love everything I’ve ever read from Nicole Baart. (Her book Sleeping in Eden is on my top 10 list of favorite books of all time. If I had such a list!) Five stars, six stars, a million stars … none of them are enough praise for the way Baart wtites a story. She redefines what a happy ending means, giving her characters hopeful and redemptive endings that aren’t necessarily prettily tied up with a bow. That’s real life and she captures the tension between beautiful and broken so well.
Disclosure: I read an advance copy of the book courtesy of Atria Publishing. Review reflects my honest opinion.