My Thoughts on Letters from my Sister by Valerie Fraser Luesse

 

About:

Two sisters. One mystery. A family changed forever.

At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life when their well-ordered Alabama household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly--and innocently--draws the wrong kind of attention.

After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see--or did she? Her memory is a haze, just an image in her mind of Emmy standing on a darkened riverbank and cradling Lily's baby girl. Only when the sisters are separated does the truth slowly come to light--including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie's life.

My Thoughts:

For some reason, when I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be more about the letters. It was not. It was about two sisters, Emmy and Callie, their family, and the family that served them for years. Taking place in Alabama in the early 1900s, we see how fiercely protective these two families are of one another. 

Callie is a young woman who is adventurous and doesn't let the rigid rules set by her mother slow her down. This story is told through Callie's eyes, but the rest of the characters are well-fleshed out, and we get to know them too. This story pulled me into this tightly-knit group of people just farming and living life, falling in love, and dreaming of a better future for all.

Then, all of a sudden, something happens. And the story changes into a mystery that seems to alter everything. However, after I closed the last page, I began to think that what happened in the first chapter was what really changed everything for this family.

This story pulled me into its atmosphere of love, mystery, and a little bit of the spiritual and wouldn't let me go. I have been pondering it since. It is bittersweet as it deals with tragedies I was not expecting. In fact, I feel I was just as shocked and grieved as the characters when certain things happened. Author Luesse really knows how to pull the reader into her stories, and she does well in getting us to know all her characters.

I was provided a copy of this novel from Revell Publishing through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to post a positive review, and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac, Almost Home, The Key to Everything, and Under the Bayou Moon. She is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she recently retired as senior travel editor. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse received the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society for her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana. A graduate of Auburn University and Baylor University, she lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Dave.