The Sound of Glass by Karen White

The Sound of Glass by Karen White really snuck up on me. A book about a woman who suddenly inherits the family home of her not-too-recently departed husband, the family home of a family she never knew he had, sounded a bit silly to me. A woman born and raised in Maine picks up and moves to a small town in South Carolina to live in a three hundred-year-old house sounded like a "Yankee-invades-the-South" kind of book and those are never as entertaining as people think they will be. And yet... 

Merritt has a dark past and is looking to start her life anew. The opportunity to transplant herself to an old family home in South Carolina seems as good an idea as any other and so, without too much thought and even less preparation, she leaps. When she arrives, she discovers that not only was she completely unaware of her late husband's family, his family and the whole town where he grew up were completely unaware of her. She is shaken to discover that her husband, Cal, has a brother and that Cal and this brother, Gibbes have the very same eyes. Complicating matters further is the quite abrupt arrival of Loralee, Merritt's step-mother to whom she hasn't spoken in over a decade and her ten-year-old half brother. When this book is described as a "family drama", there is a good reason. Adding to all of this is the discovery of a nearly sixty-year-old plane crash mystery that spans three generations.

Oh, my goodness. This book! I was sucked right in to the story, especially as bits of the mystery came trickling in to the tale. Each of the characters is so rich, though Loralee is my favorite. She has a pink journal into which she writes her "truths" about life. They range from the practical to the more existential. Here are just a few:

• The weight of fear goes away as soon as we face our monsters and realize they weren't as scary as we thought.
• Even in the blackest darkness, there is always light shining somewhere. 
• Forget what hurt you in the past. But never forget what it taught you.
• You can't move forward if you always have one foot on the brake.
• There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.
• Life doesn't get easier. We just get stronger.

And my favorite:

• Everybody dies. But not everybody lives.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was one of those that captured my attention right away and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen. This would be a great vacation book- light and fun, but still with enough meat to hold your interest. Let me know if you like it!