Reviewer: Terry
I received a review copy
Summary:
In New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Sheehan’s evocative and emotionally compelling novel, a mother and her adopted daughter each embark on a journey of self-discovery in the wake of a stunning revelation.
How do you keep a secret so huge that it could devastate everyone you care about? For Kate Malloy, the answer is simple: one lie at a time. That’s how she has protected her daughter for more than a dozen years, shielding her from a terrible truth. Sofia, a fifteen-year-old soccer star living in New England, believes she was born in Mexico and legally adopted by Kate. But a posthumous letter from her stepfather tells Sofia a different story—one of civil unrest and bloodshed, death-defying heroism and child-smuggling, harrowing sacrifice and desperate decisions.
Sofia’s trust in her mother is shattered. At last Kate must do what she knows is right—accompany Sofia back to Guatemala, the place where Kate found horror and heartache but also the greatest joy of her life. As mother and daughter confront the damage done by years of dangerous yet necessary deceptions, they discover how much love, hope, and happiness may still remain—if they have the courage to face their past.
Review:
The story begins as a mom and daughter struggle to deal with the death of a beloved husband and stepdad and simply throws you into a harrowing tale of the lengths that one woman and many many others went through to make sure one little girl did not become another casualty of the civil war in Guatemala. But that of course tells nothing of the depth of this story and the far to real depictions of the journey that Kate went on when she came home changed forever as well as with a two year old orphan that she would protect with her life.
The author does such an amazing job with this story, it was easy as the reader to loose myself in the story and by the end I felt very invested, not many stories move me like this, so this is one I will treasure simply for that alone.
I also truly loved how well the author depicted the local tribes, and uniqueness of the Mayan culture, it was easy to picture the small villages and the children running around in their simple, yet intricately designed clothing, that colors and desist alone identified them to thier village and ancestors.
On top of that, this is also a story of family, and love and the mother/daughter dimanics, and the lessons learned only once one becomes a parent and finds themself loving someone more then themself.
5 stars
