Cassie is single, works in an art gallery in New York and gets an unexpected letter from Tennessee. In the letter she is granted a house and 60 acres from her mother’s father, a man she has never met who has just passed away.
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Raised by her father after her mother dies in a tragic accident when she was three, Cassie leaves her life in New York behind to go to Tennessee and get to know the mother she never knew through her relatives. As Cassie starts over in Tennessee she begins to uncover a family mystery that’s been buried for decades.
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This is Christina Baker Kline’s debut novel and I can see the difference in her writing as it has changed over time. I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as her others but this is still a great first novel. Kline accurately and realistically describes what it’s like to be married to an alcoholic narcissist and what decades of a life like that can do to a person’s spirit. As always, her characters seem real and they’re easy to care for.
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3.75/5 ⭐️- a great debut novel but not as good as her others. I would recommend to those who particularly like family dramas.