🏠🏠1/2
The Story She Left Behind
Patti Callahan Henry
Publication Date: March 18th, 2025
Simon & Schuster Canada | Simon & Schuster | Atria Books
352 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genres: General Fiction | Historical Fiction | Women’s Fiction
This book mixes historical fiction with a family mystery and has a dual timeline that dragged a bit for me. I love Patti Callahan Henry’s style of writing and while her 2023 release The Secret Book of Flora Lea was a book I enjoyed, this one fell a little flat.
I am going to start with what I did like. The author does a great job with the atmospheric descriptions, especially in the earlier timeline. I love how we get to explore the mother-daughter relationships, the secrets families keep and how they can hurt us in the future. I liked that it was inspired by a real-life mystery which added to the intrigue.
What didn’t work for me was the slow pace, while the historical sections were interesting the modern take was so slow that it made the pacing uneven. Some of the characters were well-developed and fully fleshed out but others felt two dimensional and were much less compelling. For my tastes, the magical elements were not done very well. I wanted more I think. For the most part, the experience was enjoyable, especially the historical sections. And overall this was an okay read if a bit predictable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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