Not a compelling read. The characters were not engaging or interesting and the story line tired. It is not always wise to republish a book years later by a writer who has gone on to write better things!

This book never got interesting. it just dragged. The ending seemed to come out of no where, at least to me!

My Review:
I didn't know what to expect from this one, even after reading the synopsis and reviews, but what I got wasn't it. This is a story about endings and beginnings and how women handle them. Three generations of women being released from their previous strictures and what they do with their freedom. One is a young woman now old enough to go out on her own. One is her divorced mother who has moved back to her childhood town. And the last is her widowed mother who has been traveling to see what she has missed since her late husband didn't like to travel.

The daughter you really only know through her actions, her letters, and information from phone calls about her. You don't get to know her emotionally or through much first-person contact. But she's now an adult and making the most of it. Making her own decisions and going as far as she can under her own steam. She doesn't have to answer to teachers or parents anymore.

The mother of the young woman is divorced and dealing with housing logistics. She's moving back to her hometown where her family is well known, but she hasn't been in many years. Her father has died and her mother has taken to traveling. The woman herself is an artist. She gets busy working emotions out in her art and scaring some of the locals with it. But she's also reconnecting with friends and making her life again in this town. Her cat has its kittens and she rescues a dog. She's busy nesting in the house the doctor left her, which seems to be its own story. Her mother spends Christmas with her then goes off on a cruise. As she explores the house and reacquaints herself with the town, she stirs things up and finds some dark corners that could use a little light shown on them. Questions that perhaps her mother could answer when she returns from her cruise.

The mother of the middle woman has been traveling to places she always wanted to see. Her husband was a wonderful man, but he wasn't a traveler. He was a scholar. She's spent Christmas with her daughter and now is off on a cruise. She runs into an old acquaintance who thinks she would make him the perfect wife now that he's 75 and she's a widow. She writes a letter to her daughter to tell her about the man's proposal and her thoughts on life.

Being a part of the lives of these women is experiencing life in the raw. Ms. Berridge allows us to share the highs and lows of emotion with these women as they work their way through these phases of their lives. This is a book I highly recommend for any reader of women's lit. I do believe this will go on my read again shelf.

This eARC was provided by Endeavour Press, Odyssey Press, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

In this slow moving story, Emma leaves her home near Birmingham to move into a house she inherits in Wales. Newly divorced, she returns where she grew up, redoing the old doctor's house. I felt the characters were not appealing and the plot lacking. Skip this one.