TW: domestic violence, abuse, death of a parent for a child, plane crash.
• From the very beginning, it grips you and it never let go.
• A somewhat emotional story of love and redemption, moving on and finding healing in the power of love and acceptance (maternal and otherwise).
• This is a story that will surely stay with me forever, much like her books The Beach Trees and Falling Home.
• How ironic that Merritt’s dad was a pilot considering how her grandfather died. Did her mom know how her grandfather died - minus the specifics? ( )

The story was good, it did take a while to unfold but the underlying story of finding your voice and shedding fears was wonderful. ( )

The Sound of Broken Glass by Karen White is a 2015 Berkley publication.

Merritt is shocked to discover she has inherited her late husband’s family home in South Carolina. She makes the trip to claim the home, which has seen better days, and plans to move in. She is shocked to discover that Cal has a brother, the town pediatrician. While he looks a lot like her late husband, he is not the same in temperament.

The other surprise, Merritt gets is a sudden visit from her step-mother, and young half-brother, Owen. The visit, as it turns out, is more a permanent one, much to Merritt’s dismay. Meanwhile, family secrets, connected to an old plane crash, begins to seep out, leading to a stunning connection to Merritt….

I love Karen White- and was as charmed and absorbed in her Tradd Street series as anyone- but I must say her southern dramas are where she really shines. This story is just one all around great story. The southern atmosphere is palpable, the characterizations strong and believable. A mystery, some humor, tears, a little romance, and wonderful heartwarming conclusion. We really need more books like this one. For me, it seems new releases are so incredibly shallow… and forgettable. I assure you there is nothing about his book I will forget anytime soon!

Outstanding effort by Karen White- highly recommend!

5 stars ( )

There is so much to this novel, events pull together three stories of women who have been widowed and some have suffered abuse by their husbands and an ancestral house pulls their stories and families together. It is not an easy read, but well worth your time. The narrators do an excellent job.

FROM AMAZON: It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward's husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news - Cal's family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal's reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt. Charting the course of an uncertain life - and feeling guilt from her husband's tragic death - Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal's unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff. This unknown legacy, now Merritt's, will change and define her as she navigates her new life - a new life complicated by the arrival of her too-young stepmother and 10-year-old half-brother.

Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country. ( )

The Sound of Glass/Karen White What an exquisitely gorgeous story this was--more a tale about family than anything, but also a romance, a mystery, dealing with abusive relationships, and Loralee's mother's good advice wrapped up into one novel that will make you feel good.
 
I absolutely loved the atmosphere of the book, which took place in South Carolina. Merritt had moved from Maine and the cultural differences were palpable from the beginning. It was a lot of fun to watch Loralee teaching Merritt how to act like a good Southerner and seeing Merritt fighting with things like humidity. There were also some beautifully crafted scenes involving alligators and dolphins that made me really feel as though I was getting the South Carolinan vibe.
 
There were a few secrets in this book, namely Loralee's, and one mystery, a set of events that were too eerie to be coincidence. White artfully dropped tidbits of information about all of these secrets so that as a reader I could figure them out just before the characters did.
 
With Loralee's help, Merritt became a truly strong character. She had a hard background and a lot of traumatizing memories to work through, and her character really reflected this. It was heartening to watch her work through these experiences and to see her grow as a person.
 
Loralee was inspiring and I adored growing to love her alongside Merritt. She was an incredible mother to Owen and an incredible human being to everyone she came across in a way that didn't feel forced, but instead very real and she was very much a role model, someone everyone should be a little more like.
 
Even smaller characters like Debbie had back stories that worked their way into the current tale to make them believable and realistic. Gibbes was the only big character who could feel a little flat at times, but this wasn't his story, so that was okay.
This was slow moving at times, and I read a few other books while reading it as it didn't completely envelop me. I also found it distracting how Merritt's chapters were written in first person while Loralee's and Edith's were written in third.
 
However, White tied up all of the loose ends and brought each thread back together in a really satisfying manner. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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