The Shadow of Your Smile (Book Review)

                                          The Shadow of Your Smile by Susan May Warren

About the book:
A beautiful blanket of snow may cover the quaint town of Deep Haven each winter, but it can’t quite hide the wreckage of Noelle and Eli Hueston’s marriage.
After twenty-five years, they’re contemplating divorce . . . just as soon as their youngest son graduates from high school. But then an accident erases part of Noelle's memory. Though her other injuries are minor, she doesn’t remember Eli, their children, or the tragedy that has ripped their family apart. What’s more, Noelle is shocked that her life has turned out nothing like she dreamed it would. As she tries to regain her memory and slowly steps into her role as a wife and mother, Eli helps her readjust to daily life with sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-heartwarming results. But can she fall in love again with a man she can’t remember?
Will their secrets destroy them . . . or has erasing the past given them a chance for a future?

My Review: Once again Susan May Warren has written a story that is wholly relatable. Who hasn’t wondered at some point in his/her life: What if I’d done that instead of this, moved there, married that person, pursued that path… made different choices? The author has taken a well-used story arc – lost memory & forgotten family – and made it fresh again.

When Noelle falls on an icy road and hits her head, she loses more than just her memory of the past twenty-five years. She loses the middle-aged, woman she has become. She looks in the mirror and doesn’t recognize the frumpy housewife and mom staring back at her. How could she have let herself fall apart like this? Her life has taken such a one-eighty from where she thought she’d be that it shocks and confuses her. How could she possibly throw away all her dreams and move to a tiny little town far from the city and the art she loves, to live with a grumpy man who doesn’t seem to get her at all? Is this really her life??

The Shadow of your Smile takes you into the hearts and souls of a family barely hanging on to the frayed edges of their lives, marriage, and commitments. Ripped apart by personal tragedy three years earlier, Eli and Noelle have been living separate lives for a long time. With her memory wiped clean, Eli thinks he may have a chance to win her back, but secrets they’ve both been keeping may well tear them apart before love can find a way to heal the brokenness.

The Shadow of your Smile isn’t just a story about starting over or second chances, but about trust, about faith, about letting go of the death grip we have on the door to our hearts, and allowing the person that God has given us to share our lives with access to our dreams, our struggles, our pain. Because we aren’t meant to walk this road alone.

And yes – this is a three-hankie tearjerker story, so get your box of tissues and curl up for a great read!

Read the story behind the story here: http://www.susanmaywarren.com/books/the-shadow-of-your-smile.
 

Blog tour schedule:http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13448479) 

About Susan: Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.

Susan's larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder ofwww.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.

Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)

A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at:www.susanmaywarren.com.
 
Link to buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1414334834/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sprightly-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1414334834

I was given a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.