Saturday 27 August 2016

Book ~ "Silver Threads" (2016) Bette Lee Crosby

From Goodreads ~ On the day Jennifer Green was born, a pile of stones was placed alongside her scale of life. A few were the dark gray of sorrow but most were a pale blush color. The largest stone was the rose hue of a sunrise. That one would be placed on the scale the day she married Drew Bishop. Even more brilliant but a wee bit smaller was the pink stone glistening with specs of silver. That one would bring Jennifer a baby girl named Brooke. The Keeper of the Scale smiled. Seeing such happiness laid out before him was pleasing to his eye.

Since the beginning of time, he and he alone has been challenged with the task of keeping each person’s scale in balance. A bit of happiness and then a small stone of sorrow, until the lives he has in his charge are measured evenly.

You might think such power is universal, but it is not. There are silver threads that crisscross the landscape of scales and connect strangers to one another. Not even the Keeper of the Scale can control the events traveling through those threads; the only thing he can do is try to equalize the balance once it has been thrown off. There is nothing more he can do for Jennifer; now he must find the thread that leads to Drew if he is to have the love he deserves. 

Jennifer and Drew are married and have an eight-year-old daughter named Brooke.   Drew is a salesman so is away from home a lot and Jennifer takes care of Brooke and the household.  A tragedy occurs and Drew and Brooke are forced to adapt to life without Jennifer.  As a single dad, Drew isn't used to the day-to-day life at home, his work performance suffers and Brooke doesn't want to let him out of her sight.  He doesn't know whether he should do the things the way Jennifer used to do or change things up and do things differently.

It is the seventh book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  It is written in third person perspective in present tense, though some chapters are in first person perspective ... they are short and italicized and the name of the person is at the beginning of these chapters so you know who the focus is. This style worked for me as it let me get into their heads and know what they were thinking.  I liked the characters ... it was difficult for Drew and Brooke to carry on but they did the best they could.

Though this is the fifth book in the Memory House series, you don't need to have read the ones before it as it works as a standalone.  I've read the first and second in this series (Annie and Oliver from these books are in this one) and look forward to reading the others (the third and fourth).

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