As The Light Fades by Catherine West ~ Book Review

Liz Carlisle heads back to her family home in Nantucket after escaping an abusive relationship in New York.  Trying to sort through to how her life ended up back there, Liz has to face the fact that not only is her relationship gone but so is her high powered job as attorney because she worked for the company where her ex was the owner.  Now she has decisions to make, but the family home is in the midst of the chaos of renovations turning into a bed and breakfast.  Craving peace and quiet Liz rents a little home on the property of Matthew Stone and takes a job at the local art gallery.  But chaos follows her in the form of Mia, Matthew's niece who lives with him, and now also works at the gallery to put in community service time.  Liz is not great with teenagers but can understand Mia a bit and a wary friendship forms but Matthew has his own family drama he is trying to deal with.  When Liz's ex shows up in town looking for her, Liz knows her escape is over and the secrets she'd hoped would stay buried are threatening to surface.  Telling the truth would set her free but is she willing to pay the price?

I really enjoy Catherine West's contemporary women's fiction and her writing style.  Her character's are real and flawed making them relatable, her stories realistic.  This story was no exception and I was drawn into all involved.  There is lots of family drama, sometimes gritty, but done in a way that is real and offers glimpses into what those who face those situations might encounter and go through and still the story manages to offer hope.  There might be some trigger warnings as the story deals with drugs, abuse of power and relationship, physical abuse,  as well as aging and loss of memory, misunderstanding and finding hope and healing.   The situations were realistic, the reactions sometimes raw and really tugged at my heart at times.  My heart really went out to Mia as she struggled with the life she had been dealt and with Drake who was forced to move to a supportive living home and was struggling with memory loss and coping day to day (really made me understand my mom a bit better).  The quote that really stuck out to me was:

"Sometimes we're placed the the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons"

pg. 70

and then I saw it was also a quote used on the back of the book by the publisher for the attention grabbing line.  

The author moved away from using a publishing company and this book was self published and the only criticism I have is that there were a few editing errors.  Otherwise another wonderful contemporary story I really enjoyed.

I rated it a 9/10 (brought down by the editing errors)

Reading Challenge Goal Met:  Read a book purchased in 2020 - 2022