Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: The McCloud Home for Wayward Girls
Author: Wendy Delsol
Publisher: Berkley Trade
ISBN-13: 978-0-425-24131-8
Release Date: August 2011
Genre/Sub-genre: General Fiction
Year/Setting: Present day/Eastern U.S.
Overall Rating: 3.5
Sexual Content Rating: None/Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: Minimal/Moderate
Wendy's Website/Blog: www.wendydelsol.com
Dear Readers:
The McCloud Home For Wayward Girls was one of those remarkable places that was created back in the 1960’s in order to help poor, pregnant girls try to better their lives for themselves and their children, and not be put down by the rest of the community.
One of those young ladies was Ruby, who was wooed and won over by the Home’s owner and operator, and now The McCloud Home has become a beautiful local Inn that Ruby runs with Jill, her daughter. This is a mother-daughter partnership that really works. Jill is proud and amazed by her mother because she worked so hard all her life, and Jill’s happy that Mom can now rest, relax, and do what she loves to do - paint - while Jill runs the Inn. Thankfully, Jill and her daughter are also friends, and work together well. Even though, Fee, Jill’s teenage daughter is beginning to search for the identity of her father.
An event is about to take place at the Inn, and this event is going to bring Jill into direct contact with her "long-lost love" by the name of Keith. Keith is a man who has lived in the City and done well for himself, and is having his mother’s wake at the Inn. Hester is his mother, and she wasn’t exactly what some would call a very nice woman. In fact, Hester and Ruby never got along because of issues (with a man) that happened in the past.
Keith and Jill, on the other hand, very much cared for each other. When they were younger, Keith was dating a girl by the name of Jocelyn who was a real "party girl," and on one New Year’s Eve he realized that Jill - not the slimy Jocelyn - was the woman for him. After years have gone by, he walks into the old Inn and sees Jill once again, and life becomes a series of past mistakes entering into people‘s present-day lives. The story truly shows generation after generation of love, family, hope, kindness, and the ability to make-up-for, as well as forgive, past mistakes.
This author has done a beautiful job of showing readers all aspects of life from anger to distrust to true love to the ultimate forgiveness. And, most of all, she made sure to drive home the point that no matter how old you get, the past will always catch up to you!
Until next time,
Amy
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