pie and papercuts

Finding Heather had the potential to be a true favorite for me, but there were just a few things that held it back. Once Heather makes the decision to move herself and her twins back to her home in Scotland, the story began to drag. There was a whole chapter about her cleaning out the closet. That's it. No big reveal, no hidden secrets of her deceased husband's. Just cleaning out the closet and finding pictures. I kept waiting for there to be some connection to be made, some hidden truth revealed. But nothing.

I think the intention was to highlight that she loved and missed her husband, that this was a big, tough decision and that he had been a good guy. But for me, unless you give me a good reason why she wouldn't be sad about the death of her husband, I'm going to believe that he was a good guy and that she does miss him. For me the first third of the book seemed to drag with unnecessary little scenes that were setting up what I would already assume to be truth unless told otherwise.

Once they get moved and Elspeth takes her tumble down the stairs and Max disappears, the pace picks up and the story seemed to flow much better. But then once again, once Max is found and back home, things began to drag again. Setting up the relationships between Heather and Fraser, Elspeth and Davy, and lastly Murdoch and Chrissy seemed to just drag on more than necessary. All of the setting up of the relationships could have been happening during actual action.

All in all, Finding Heather is a sweet story of moving on, not just for Heather and her children but for many members of her family. I just feel as though there could have been more action moving the story along rather than little cut scenes.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher/Netgalley in exchange for a review.