Hallie’s Heart
by Shelly Beach
The reader’s first impression of Mona VanderMolen might not be a favorable one. The author paints a picture of her that isn’t all that flattering! She’s at an auction and has forgotten to bring even the most essentials items that she needed: a hat, umbrella and sunscreen. So there she sits waiting at an auction, baking in the hot sun. She is the proud owner of an antique shop which is struggling to stay afloat. The results of this auction don’t help any as the main set of furniture she was hoping to buy was snapped up by a gentleman who didn’t seem to be effected by the weather at all, much to Mona’s dismay.
As the book unfolds we find out the reason Mona is in this position. She used to live on the beach of Lake Michigan until a terrible tragedy made moving necessary. She still owned that house by the beach but couldn’t deal with the memories.
We are then introduced to Hallie who is also having a horrible time dealing with the memories of that awful event. Several years before, Mona was in charge of watching Hallie and her sister Stacy. Hallie and Stacy went for a swim in the lake and Mona stepped inside for a few minutes. She came out to find only Hallie still on the surface, and Stacy was no where to be seen. Hallie’s parents hired many therapists to help Hallie deal with the aftereffects, but nothing worked.
Eventually, Hallie ran away from home and headed to the beach house to finally face the demons there. Mona is alerted to her presence at the house and drops everything to go help her niece. As the two interact, it becomes readily apparent that Mona not only has issues with the death of Stacy under “her watch”, but she’s still dealing with the death of her mother and the effects it had on her relationship with her father.
The author used characters that you grow to care about very much as they deal with very difficult subjects. One of the main topics dealt with is forgiveness. How do you forgive others who’ve done things you think are beyond forgiveness? And what’s even harder, how do you forgive yourself?
The book really kept my attention and the author even threw in some curves I wasn’t expecting. I highly recommend this book.
Reviewed by Lynn Worley
Recent Comments