Review: The Promise Between Us

The Promise Between Us

About the Book:

Metal artist Katie Mack is living a lie. Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind—to change her name and never return.

But when she and Maisie accidentally reunite, Katie can’t ignore the familiarity of her child’s compulsive behavior. Worse, Maisie worries obsessively about bad things happening to her pregnant stepmom. Katie has the power to help, but can she reconnect with the family she abandoned?

To protect Maisie, Katie must face the fears that drove her from home, accept the possibility of love, and risk exposing her heart-wrenching secret.

My Comments:

I loved this book and highly recommend it. 

When someone becomes physically ill--whether with the 24 hour stomach bug or cancer or chicken pox--they generally garner the sympathy of those around them.  It is expected that if the disease lasts more than a day or two that a trip to the doctor has at least been considered, and it is assumed that decent health insurance will cover that visit.  We may all joke about how men's colds are so much worse than Mom's colds but we rarely blame the person who is physically ill for his or her disease.

Mental illness is different.  Somehow, many of us think that if the mentally ill would just get their acts together and quit acting that way, their illnesses would disappear--or we think that the illness is caused by weakness on the part of the one who is ill.

The main character in The Promise Between Us is Katie, and Katie is mentally ill.  Katie is also a very strong and selfless woman who has nearly lost her life to that illness.  Katie has OCD and anxiety and in this book we stand in her shoes and see the world through her eyes.  We see her cope (sometimes well, sometimes not so well) with the voices inside her head.  We see how her mental illness affects her relationships.  

Two other adult characters in the book suffer from a mental illness and for one of them, denial is his drug of choice.  In both cases we see how seemly sane people can suffer greatly from mental problems even though they appear, at least on the surface, to be happy and successful.

Finally, there is Maisy, a bright well-loved child who is starting to show signs of OCD.  She has four adults in her life who love her and want the best for her; they just disagree about what that is when it comes to her OCD and to their relationships with each other.  

Barbara Claypole White's niche seems to be novels dealing with mental illness as you will note if you click her name under this post.  As I've noted about her other books, White does a great job of making her characters more than their illness, though the illness is the focus of this story.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  A

Review of Barbara Claypole White's Echoes of Family

Echoes of Family

About the Book:

Marianne Stokes fled England at seventeen, spiraling into the manic depression that would become her shadow. She left behind secrets, memories, and tragedy: one teen dead, and her first love, Gabriel, badly injured. Three decades later she’s finally found peace in the North Carolina recording studio she runs with her husband, Darius, and her almost-daughter, Jade…until another fatality propels her back across the ocean to confront the long-buried past.

In her picturesque childhood village, the first person she meets is the last person she wants to see again: Gabriel. Now the village vicar, he takes her in without question, and ripples of what if reverberate through both their hearts. As Marianne’s mind unravels, Jade and Darius track her down. Tempers clash when everyone tries to help, but only by finding the courage to face her illness can Marianne heal herself and her offbeat family.

My Comments

Barbara Claypole White's Echoes of Family explores the intersection of mental illness, guilt and secrets.  Marianne suffers from manic depression, which means that in an unmedicated state she swings between extreme energy and high emotion on the one hand and suicidal, do-nothing depression on the other.  On medication she functions well, most of the time.

Her husband loves her dearly, even if he is an (ex) alcoholic, music producer with tattoos.  He'll do anything for her.  She has a "daughter", a young woman who was "thrown away" by her family and taken in my Marianne.  The three of them run a small but successful recording studio which also provides opportunities for other "thrown away" girls.  Everything is fine until one day Marianne is in an accident and it reminds her of one she was in as a teen--the accident that brought forth her mental illness in all its glory (though there had been signs of it earlier). 

Marianne decides she needs to return to her childhood home in England, alone, to deal with the past.  When she gets there, she meets her first love, who is now the parish vicar.  He takes her in and though the two of them were once very close, they are each keeping secrets from the other.  Neither has been able to completely let go of what happened that tragic night.

Before long Marianne's husband and her "daughter" follow her to England and try to help her.  Watching her husband and her first love interact was interesting to say the least.  

I don't pretend to know much about mental illness but I loved the way Barbara Claypole White gave Marianne a real personality and life beyond being insane.  Marianne was a person with a mental illness, not a mentally ill person (the person was primary, the mental illness secondary). 

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  If you are a regular reader, you know not many books get A's from me, but this one does.  

The Perfect Son--My Review

The Perfect Son

About the Book:

From a distance, Felix Fitzwilliam, the son of an old English family, is a good husband and father. But, obsessed with order and routine, he’s a prisoner to perfection. Disengaged from the emotional life of his North Carolina family, Felix has let his wife, Ella, deal with their special-needs son by herself.

A talented jewelry designer turned full-time mother, Ella is the family rock…until her heart attack shatters their carefully structured existence. Now Harry, a gifted teen grappling with the chaos of Tourette’s, confronts a world outside his parents’ control, one that tests his desire for independence.

As Harry searches for his future, and Ella adapts to the limits of her failing health, Felix struggles with his past and present roles. To prevent the family from being ripped apart, they must each bend with the inevitability of change and reinforce the ties that bind.

My Comments:

Being the mom of a special-needs child is tough (ok, being a mom in general is tough, but having a child who doesn't do what the other kids do and who does things they don't gives you a unique path to follow).  I know, I'm the mom of a son with autism.  His special needs meant my kids did not go to our neighborhood school or our parish school.  His special needs may be one reason I've never had the "joy" of sitting at the playground watching football, baseball, basketball...games.  His special needs meant he was kicked out of a Catholic high school.  His special needs meant that we spent lots of money on doctors, therapists, and medicines.  His special needs meant that I never had to deal with sibling rivalry.  His special needs mean that at 23 he has no desire to get a full time job (though he does well with his part time job) or go to school or move out.  His special needs mean that I spent a LOT of time in parent-teacher conferences.  

Ella is the mother of a special needs child, Harry.  Harry has ADHD and Tourette's syndrome.  He makes involuntary movements and has difficulty concentrating for long periods of time.  He takes a drugstore worth of medicines daily.  He is also brilliant and has blown the top out of the SAT.  Part of the reason Harry has done so well, despite his disability is Ella.  She has sought the best treatment, run interference with the school and otherwise done her best to see that Harry gets the best.  She's a helicopter mom who really has had a reason to hover.  Then, one day, she has a heart attack and while in the hospital, she realizes how much she has done for Harry, and how little her husband has done, and how little Harry can do for himself.  Perhaps out of love, perhaps out of exhaustion, and perhaps for both reasons, Ella decides that Harry and his father are going to have to deal with each other without her running interference.  She unplugs her phone and they are lost. 

Ella's husband has become more and more emotionally distant from the family and while readers are given glimpses into why early in the book, it isn't until close to the end that Ella learns why.  As readers we watch Felix and Harry get to know each other and lean on each other.  Other characters of note are the senior citizen lady next door and Ella's best friend (who Felix can't stand).  All pull together to help Ella.

One thing that is hard for all parents is letting adult or near-adult kids live their own lives and make their own mistakes.  There are times I want to go up to my daughter's college, put her on a curfew and make her do things the right way.  On the other hand, she made the Dean's List the last two semesters so she must be doing something right.  Harry is looking at colleges.  Ella has a plan but now that Felix is in charge, he has a different plan.  I loved Harry's plan and loved that Felix was able to let go and let him carry it out.  

Barbara Claypole White is a talented writer who creates multi-dimensional characters.  This book was a joy to read and I'm glad I was able to get a copy via NetGalley.  Grade:  A.  

Review: The In-Between Hour

The In-Between Hour

About the Book:

Bestselling author Will Shepard is caught in the twilight of grief, after his young son dies in a car accident. But when his father's aging mind erases the memory, Will rewrites the truth. The story he spins brings unexpected relief…until he's forced to return to rural North Carolina, trapping himself in a lie.

Holistic veterinarian Hannah Linden is a healer who opens her heart to strays but can only watch, powerless, as her grown son struggles with inner demons. When she rents her guest cottage to Will and his dad, she finds solace in trying to mend their broken world, even while her own shatters.

As their lives connect and collide, Will and Hannah become each other's only hope—if they can find their way into a new story, one that begins with love.

My Comments:

I downloaded this one to my Kindle quite some time ago, and never got around to reading it.  Judging by the description, it was just another romance, and somehow it never made its way to the top of the stack.  Then Kathleen Basi invited me to the Women's Fiction Cafe Week with Barbara Claypole White.  If figured it might be interesting and I started the book--and then life got in the way.  Still, I loved it.  I loved the story, I loved the characters and I loved the writing.  

A big issue in this book is mental illness.  Will's mother was mentally ill (my guess is bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia) and because of that, his childhood was anything but ideal.  Still, he knew his parents loved each other.  Hannah's son suffers from depression, and depression is the reason her father committed suicide. Will's father is losing his memory.  Barbara Claypole White manages to show the real effects mental illness has on other family members.

There are bedroom scenes in the book, though they aren't terribly graphic.  I don't generally recommend books with bedroom scenes to people who don't like them, but in this case, I will.  The bedroom scenes are easy enough to skim through and the rest of the book is good enough, different enough to make it worthwhile.  

Barbara Claypole White's descriptive writing was absolutely beautiful.  It slowed me down and made me savor the words and the pictures they painted.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley and I'd like to thank Kathleen Basi for moving this book from the bottom of my stack to the top.  Grade:  A.