Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The House on Honeysuckle Lane

The House on Honeysuckle Lane is, in my opinion, the story of how three flawed people deal with the deaths of both their parents and the resulting grief.  Anyone who has siblings and has lost a parent knows that everyone deals with grief in their own way and time.

Danny is the youngest child and the only son.  He is also the only child who remained in the hometown and he took on the responsibility of his mother's care after his father died. He also took on the entire care of the house on Honeysuckle and the estate.

Emma is a successful investment advisor, who chose to strike out on her own instead of joining her father in his firm.  She is the sibling who has it the most together, having ended a ten year relationship before coming home for Christmas.

Andie is a well known self help author and speaker.  After suffering with debilitating postpartum depression, she left her ex-husband and toddler daughter to strike out on her own and become successful.  Her daughter is very angry at her for missing her 20th birthday and is grieving the loss of her grandmother.  Also, the mother named the daughter after the philosopher, Rumi, and that was confusing as Andie quoted them both.

Fourteen months have passed since the funeral and Danny asks his two older sisters to come home and make decisions on what to do with the estate and spend Christmas together as a family.

I liked the story, the small town, and the secondary characters very much.  Bob, Andie's ex-husband and best friend, is great, as is Emma new love interest.  Danny is hard to like throughout most of the story, but he really is suffering the most and just trying to keep it all together.

It took me awhile to get into the book, but about half way through I started to really want to know where they would end up. I think anyone who has lost a beloved parent will find themselves in each of these siblings. It can be cathartic.

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