Being the new lady in a divorced father's life is bound to
be challenging, but no sooner have Grace and Victor got
engaged than Victor's ex-wife dies suddenly. The couple
have to break the news to Victor's two children, moody
schoolkids, as well as coping with the loss. Grace runs a
shelter for abused women and doesn't want children of her
own, putting career first, but it looks as though she's
going to be a replacement mother whether the kids want it
or not.
HEART LIKE MINE looks back through time at Kelli, Victor's
first wife, seeing the marriage from her viewpoint and
their life in Seattle as matters change between them. Ava,
Victor's daughter, also tells her tale and tries to come to
terms with the loss of her mother. Grace had to help rear a
brother thirteen years younger, and really just wanted to
be herself for a while, but she can't shirk this
responsibility. Ava, looking through her mother's
belongings, unearths a family secret and old unhappiness.
Victor is running a busy restaurant and has little spare
time.
I found the tale slow to start, with Amy Hatvany giving us
an entire day in young Ava's self-obsessed school life.
However it soon became clear that this was to establish a
contrast with her life after the loss of her mother. The
flicking back and forth between characters and times is
reminiscent of The Time Traveller's Wife and we do feel
that Kelli had been hard-done-by for much of her life,
coming from a stern religious household where her father
was prepared to beat her for missing classes at aged
fourteen.
In the constant rotation between Kelli, Ava and Grace I
would actually have liked to see the viewpoint of young
Max, Victor's son, who seemed like a nice kid but got
little time in the story.
Less a romance and more a thoughtful look at life and why
we turn out as we do, HEART LIKE MINE will interest readers
of contemporary women's fiction and followers of Amy
Hatvany, who has written three previous books.
Thirty-six-year-old Grace McAllister never longed for
children. But when she meets Victor Hansen, a handsome,
charismatic divorced restaurateur who is father to Max and
Ava, Grace decides that, for the right man, she could learn
to be an excellent part-time stepmom. After all, the kids
live with their mother, Kelli. How hard could it be?
At thirteen, Ava Hansen is mature beyond her years. Since
her parents’ divorce, she has been taking care of her
emotionally unstable mother and her little brother—she pays
the bills, does the laundry, and never complains because
she loves her mama more than anyone. And while her father’s
new girlfriend is nice enough, Ava still holds out hope
that her parents will get back together and that they’ll be
a family again. But only days after Victor and Grace get
engaged, Kelli dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—
and soon, Grace and Ava discover that there was much more
to Kelli’s life than either ever knew.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy