ISBN: 9781939371393
Publisher: BQB Publishing
Publication Date: 10/1/2014
Format: e-book
My Rating: 4 Stars
Called to the bedside of their dying mother, three sisters reluctantly return to their childhood home in northern Minnesota. What should be a reunion of love and warmth is tainted by the ghosts of their childhood; their parents' farm is a place of painful memories. With their mother in a coma, Helene leaves behind a shell of a marriage in Atlanta---her country club lifestyle not at all what it seems. Alice has finally fled an abusive husband but is afraid her failing courage will put her children in danger.
Waking up beside yet another stranger, Suzanne can no longer deny how an alcohol addiction may destroy everything she's worked for---an addiction that barely masks the terrible wounds on her soul. They may have escaped the farm, but Helene, Alice, and Suzanne find they are still perpetuating a cycle of pain, abuse, alcoholism, anger, fear, and bitterness. Seeing themselves through each other's eyes, the sisters are forced to confront their demons. Will they be able to tread through the wreckage of the past to create lives filled with hope, love, and triumph?
My Review
A special thank you to BQB Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
FAMILY INHERITANCE, by Terri Ann Leidich is a riveting novel, of a family’s hopes and dreams and the tragedies and secrets which haunt them, as they journey to forgiveness and acceptance.
Three sisters are reunited at their dying mother’s bedside, Anna Teresa Miller –in the old farmhouse in northern Minnesota. Anna is dying and she does not care, as how could death be worse than her life? As the novel opens Anna relives her life and where it all went wrong at age sixteen, pregnant and forced to marry Walter, a reluctant groom, at best. Anna’s life had no room for dreams or play. She hears a voice; she cannot die in peace until she comes to terms with her daughters.
Each of her daughters all imagined a better life. However, each have lived through an abusive and loveless childhood with their demons, secrets, and bad memories, driving their currently dysfunctional life with poor choices.
Helene, always the strong one, leaves behind a shell of a marriage in Atlanta and her false country club lifestyle not at all what it seems. In Northern Minnesota, in her cracker box house government subsidized neighborhood, Alice has finally fled an abusive husband, Jake, and is afraid her failing courage will put her children in danger. In Dallas, Suzanne can no longer deny how an alcohol addiction may destroy everything she's worked for--an addiction that barely masks the terrible wounds from her father.
Family Inheritance is an emotional and heartbreaking novel, one of flawed and troubled characters, with highly charged social issues of abuse, alcoholism, rape, and infidelity. As the sisters are forced to come together in their time of need, and face their past and feelings, their buried hurts surface in order to move with on with acceptance, courage, and forgiveness.
A beautifully written and inspiring family drama--one of overcoming life’s messiness, and not allowing it to have the control and power to define your future. Looking forward to reading more by Terri Ann Leidich!
