The Tender Bonds

Ute
Carbone
Genre: 
Other

WOMEN'S FICTION:  Patty just lost her aunt, and in cleaning the mess, she discovers cards from her father -  years worth. She’d been led to believe he was dead. She takes time off work and leaves her almost fiancé to go in search of the man she barely remembers. What she finds is a step-brother, Charlie, his grown daughter, a man whose life was destroyed by her newly-found family, and a very much still alive father.

 

Readers beware, this is a romance—between several different couples—it is not a happy story, nor does it end with a typical happily ever after, more like a happily on the right path with the right person. It is a very well-written story; so gut-wrenching with one bad thing after another constantly hitting, that readers may need a break in order to process so many awful things happening to one family, with no slowing down. But then, that’s the problem with this story as well. Readers like to have happy moments between the bad—ups mixed with downs—and in this tale of self-discovery and healing for everyone, there are no breaks for the reader to breath. It becomes intensely overwhelming to read, and so much bad suspends belief in the story itself. There is room in between the bad things for more to be told about happy moments, whether large or small, in as detailed as the rest of it. This book will make you glad you are not Patty, but sad that you’ll never meet Charlie or Will, for these two men are the heart and soul of this journey.

 

Julie York