Book Review ~ Moon Over Edisto

"Moon Over Edisto" by Beth Webb Hart

Book Description:  
 
Edisto Island was where it all came apart. Can the Bennett girls ever be whole again? Once, they were the happiest family under the sun, crabbing and fishing and painting on beautiful Edisto Island in South Carolina’s lowcountry. Then everything went wrong, and twenty years later the Bennett family is still in pieces. Mary Ellen still struggles to understand why her picture-perfect marriage came apart. Daughter Meg keeps a death grip on her own family, controlling her relationships at a distance. And eldest daughter, Julia, left it all behind years ago, forging a whole new life as an artist and academic in Manhattan. She’s engaged to an art dealer and has no intentions of returning to Edisto. Ever. Then an emergency forces Julia back to Edisto to care for her three young half-siblings. She grudgingly agrees to stay a week. But there’s something about Edisto that changes people. Can Julia and her fractured family somehow manage to come together again under that low-hanging Edisto moon?

My Thoughts:  

I had read this author's last book and remember really enjoying it and it's very relatable characters.  In Moon Over Edisto I really feel the author has once again developed a story with characters who's feelings I really related to.  I enjoyed the character development of Julia, who in all regards, seemed to have her life really on track.  An artist who was actually making money from her art along with being a professor, a good man she had finally convinced to marry her, a trip to Budapest to teach and to paint coming up over the summer.  It all seemed to be going so well in her life.  But deep inside, she was still was still reeling and hurting,still running from the betrayal of her best friend and her father which literally turned her world upside down so many years ago.  She never dealt with all the feelings that came from that, choosing instead to run to the big city and forge her own life, disconnected from her family.  But when her former friend shows up on her doorstep asking for her help and once again wanting to turn her world upside down, Julia is forced to face all those feelings and must make some exceptionally difficult decisions.  Her journey from deep pain to choosing to do what was difficult to forgiveness to finally making the hardest decision of all left me feeling it all with her and rooting for her because of her courage.  Whereas Julia chose to run away, her sister's feelings of deep anger and hatred were also relatable as was her not wanting to let them go.  While her journey to resolution was more abrupt you could feel the lingering affects on her life and on her family as her choices were directly made through the lens of one who was betrayed.  Both were faced to answer whether they were really happy in the lives they had chosen.  This story was heartfelt and deep showing the redemptive power of choosing love.

Thanks to Booksneeze for providing the book free of charge for my honest review.  All the opinions expressed are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Moon Over Edisto is available for purchase here.