About the Book:
Terry Lovely isn't expecting any great rewards for her decision to uproot her family, move halfway across the country and take care of her sister Lily, who has Down Syndrome. What Terry will eventually discover, however, is that Lily will give more than she will ever take, including a certain something Terry doesn't even know is missing.
My Comments:
I loved the first book in this trilogy,
Until Lily (
see my review) so I grabbed this one when
The Catholic Company offered it for review. While I enjoyed it, I found it more preachy and less well written than
Until Lily.
Terry's family consists of her and her husband, along with their three girls, the youngest of whom is about ten. The oldest is a troubled teen. When Lily needs a caretaker, Terry and her husband decide to uproot the family and move across the country to be with Lily, rather than disrupting Lily's life and bringing her to them. They quickly become friends with Lily's favorite priest who becomes Terry's spiritual mentor. Though Terry has not been much of a churchgoer, she joins a mom's group in Fr. Fitz's parish and studies Pope John Paul II's
On the Dignity and Vocation of Women which is quoted in many places throughout the book.
This whole trilogy is set in the future,which is a little confusing and hard to remember at times. There are just a couple of references to the past, which remind the reader that the story is set about 30 years in the future. In this book Terry remembers the Swine Flu year and how everyone was always carrying hand sanitizer. In another scene a mom tells Terry that due to socialized medicine the bureaucrats, not the parents, got to decide if premature babies were treated or only given "comfort care".
Conversations with Fr. Fitz deal with forgiveness of others and forgiveness of self. He urges prayer as the first step in helping a troubled child. Still, for all the conversations with Fr.Fitz, Terry herself never comes across as terribly religious; in fact she readily admits that she doesn't pray and doesn't feel anything when she does--which gives Father an opening to talk about the dark night of the soul.
All in all, it was an enjoyable story, a little heavy-handed on the religion but still a good read. Grade: B.
