Tuesday, February 23, 2021

When She Returned by Lucinda Berry Book Review


 

The one mistake I made with this book is to start reading it at bedtime. Don’t do that!

This story is told in three voices.

ABBI: Kate went missing eleven years ago, so Abbi does not remember her. She is telling her story in the now since Kate has returned. All Abbi wanted was to get to know her mom.

KATE: Kate is relating her story in the then timeframe … leading up to her disappearance. Scott, her husband, had to deal with her missing and refusing to accept that she may be dead or never return. Kate’s assignment was to do an interview series with Ray, the leader of Love International, an organization that had moved to Arcata with the premise of helping people detox from drugs and alcohol. There was more to Love International than anyone expected.

MEREDITH: Meredith met Scott in their grief classes. She is the new wife and is telling her story in the now, dealing with her own emotional rollercoaster. She has two sons, Thad and Caleb. You can only imagine the inner turmoil Meredith had to deal with when Kate returned. She discovered something about Kate, but nobody wanted to believe her.

As this story unfolds, each of the people mentioned (to the exclusion of Thad and Caleb as they were grown and out of the home) are telling the same story in their own words, dealing with their own emotions. Before Kate disappeared, she had left her journalist job to be a stay-at-home mom to Abbi. After a few years, she decided to go back to her full-time position and was doing a story on an organization in the Arcata area called Love International. She got more than what she bargained for.

Ms. Berry dropped a couple of clues, if you will, in this tale to lead the reader down one path of what might have happened … Talk about a mind twister! The ending will leave you going, “Say, what? I sure didn’t see that coming.” Good read!

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