Hope McKenna- Smith finds herself up to her elbows in stress. She is recently divorced and her teenaged daughter is blaming her for the breakup. Hope's mother has passed away from cancer, and it's up to Hope to care for her grandmother Rose who has Alzheimer's disease. Hope has taken over the running of the family's popular bakery, but finds that she is about to lose the business if she doesn't find an investor or some ready cash soon. A lot of stress to be sure.

And on top of all the rest, a visit to her grandmother presents her with information that will rock the foundations of all she has ever known about her family. Having a very lucid day, Rose pleads for Hope to go to Paris to find out what happened to the people from her past whose names she has written down on a list. Hope discovers that her grandmother is not a French Catholic immigrant but rather a Jewish girl smuggled out of France during World War II and the people on the list are her grandmother's family who were taken by the Nazis. Hope's entire family history changes in the course of a single conversation and it is up to her to find out exactly what took place all those years ago.

THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING, by Kristin Harmel, is a very moving story of one woman's search for who she really is and why the women in her family seem unable to express their love. As the horrors of the German occupation of Paris unfold for its Jewish citizens small miracles occur in the least likely places. And it's the bakery and the family recipes that help to lead Hope to answers she needs.

THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING is absolutely enthralling and full of twists and turns that add to the drama and keeps the tale moving along. These types of stories need to be told so younger generations don't forget the horror of Hitler's regime.

Author Kristin Harmel does a magnificent job of telling this saga of one family's search for understanding. She also handles her approach to Alzheimer's disease with gentleness and understanding. Readers will remember THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING long after the final page is turned.