WHEN NEVER COMES by Barbara Davis
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Published by Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN-10: 1503950174
ISBN-13: 978-1503950177
Pages: 352
Review Copy From: Author
Edition: TPB
My Rating: 5+

Author Barbara Davis deftly explores an emotionally charged landscape of pain, loss, and despair—and the risk one woman will take in the hope of loving again.

As a teenage runaway and child of an addict, Christy-Lynn learned the hard way that no address was permanent, and no promise sacred. For a while, she found a safe haven in her marriage to bestselling crime novelist Stephen Ludlow—until his car skidded into Echo Bay. But Stephen’s wasn’t the only body pulled from the icy waters that night. When details about a mysterious violet-eyed blonde become public, a media circus ensues, and Christy-Lynn runs again.

Desperate for answers, she’s shattered to learn that Stephen and his mistress had a child—a little girl named Iris, who now lives in poverty with her ailing great-grandmother. The thought of Iris abandoned to the foster care system—as Christy-Lynn once was—is unbearable. But she’s spent her whole life running—determined never to be hurt again. Will she finally stand still long enough to open herself up to forgiveness and love?

This is the first book by this writer that I have read and she is now on my “authors to read” list.

I honestly don’t know where to start because this book blew me away. I don’t want to give anything away so I say ditto to the synopsis.

Even though I figured out how this book would end, it’s the journey to that point, that the author takes the reader on with her written words that cut me to my core and filled my heart and soul.

I read this book within 24 hours because I literally could not put it down. It is what I call a book that transports the reader into the story, being so engrossed and feeling that I was a bystander in Sweetwater, VA.

The characters felt like my friends. I could feel their emotions of betrayal, despair, excitement, grief, guilt, happiness, the bonds of friendship, love, and the complexity of their thoughts.

Sweetwater, a small and quaint town, reminded me of a town that I lived in for 4 years and was my 2nd home, especially with the scenes about the 4th of July traditions.

There were a few passages that hit me hard:

pg. 215 Never is all the doors we keep shut. It’s the things we won’t let ourselves have or be because we don’t think we’re good enough or strong enough for more.

pg. 219 …there are places in our minds where we lock up all the things we don’t want to remember…filled with all the stuff we don’t want anyone, including ourselves, to see and then one day something yanks these doors open.

A raw, emotional, realistic, and compelling read! Poignant and impassioned! A dynamic and powerful message. An intense story that will stay with me to my dying day!

Warning: you will need a box of tissues for both the happy and sad tears!

I can’t stress enough how much this book touched me. I highly recommend!

Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

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