Book review - You Are The Love Of My Life. Susan Richards Shreve

You Are The Love Of My Life

 by: Susan Richards Shreve

It's 1973 and the Watergate scandal is on everyone's lips.  Lucy Painter, a children's book illustrator and single mother of two (Maggie and Felix) leaves New York and the married father of her children to return to Washington DC, to the neighbourhood where she grew up and the house where her father committed suicide.  
Lucy hopes for a fresh start, but her life is full of secrets; her children know nothing of her father's death or the identity of their own father.   As new neighbours enter their insular lives, her family's safety and stability become threatened.  Beautifully told, You Are The Love Of My Life is a story of how shame leads to secrets, secrets to lies and how lies stand in the way of human connection.

The women of Wichita Hills are unique and interesting chacters who like to talk gossip but each hold their own secrets.   Lucy is conceling her identity from everyone, but one Man (August) may have woked it out .... will he expose her?  Why does Zee look after Maggie like a daughter? What isn't she telling her boys about the visits to Vermont which she can no longer cope with?  Lane Sewall is keeping secrets from her daughter, Maeve, will she find out the truth?  More importantly how will the village react when they find out about the 3 womens pasts?

Although I found the book slightly disjointed in places as it jumped between stories  (those of Lucy, Maggie and Zee's) it was easy to follow each persons journey.  You wanted to read on to find out what was going to happen, the twists that would expect to happen don't which make the story more believable.

The characters are all very well written and you can get inside them and put yourself if their shoes.

My rating: 3/5 

It's not a book I would normally pick up off the shelf but the publisher W.W. Norton Books sent it to me free of charge and I did enjoy it.

This book is now looking for a new home and I am happy to post it free within the UK.  If you would like to be considered please leave a comment below with your twitter handle.