Set betweend 1963 and 1972, this novel explores the story of Monica "Moe" Campbell as she explores the terrible experiences of her life as she tries to move beyond them and build a life of her own. Moe was born and raised in the Cumberland Mountains in the town of Mount Laurel. As many of you know, these were years in which America was confronted with a number of troublesome challenges ranging from the Viet Nam War to the Civil Rights Movement. Riley carefully sets her story and characters amid these events and shows how they affected average folks.

The novel opens at the funeral of Moe's mother Beulah. She and her older sister Margie are now both orphans, as their father died a number of years earlier. It is at the funeral that Moe meets her Aunt Anna, her mother's sister, for the very first time. It is through this introduction that Moe first learns that her mother was not from the poor South, but from a well-established family from up North.

And it is also during an intense conversation that Moe reveals for the first time the horrors that she face in her home at the hands of her father. It is with this secret that no one could know about that totally warped the relationships between everyone in her family. And it would establish an overarching shadow that would hang over Moe for years.

The novel jumps forward almost a decade until just before Moe's graduation at a boarding school. She returns back to Mount Laurel and finds herself living with Margie and her growing family. Unfortunately, what could have been a pleasant family reunion goes horribly wrong as old familial pain and anger returns, and Margie still holds animosity toward her younger sister. This only gets more intense as Margie's husband tries to repeat the actions of Moe's dad. Margie is filled with ire and any chance for the sisters becoming close ends, foreboding a dark future.

Moe is fortunate enough to move into the home of her best friend Janie and her husband. It is here that Moe gets an opportunity to start building her own life. This means getting past her family history and how she thinks those around her might judge her for those experiences. She builds a core group of friends and support, a budding relationship develops, and an opportunity to realize her inner strength comes about.

Much of her experiences are affected by events of the time period, particularly as Moe, Janie, and their friends must deal with a Klan-like attack on one of their numbers and the disturbing inability of local officials to deal with the crime.

The novel is filled with rich description that makes the reader feel as if they are in the setting and experiencing real people as they face the challenges in their lives. Monica is an appealing character that quickly becomes someone the reader cares about. I found myself really cheering for her because I wanted her to overcome the horrors of her life and find real happiness. She is a wonderfully drawn character that is so real.

This one was penned by one of our very own MyBloggerstown members. Dottie very generously asked me to review her manuscript. I was both honored and pleased. And, yest ... the book cover utilizes one of her amazing paintings, though my scanning job doesn't really do it justice. While I might not normally have picked up this type of book based on the storyline, but I am very glad that I got to read it because it proved to be very enjoyable.

For those of you looking to have a sense of what this book might be like, I found it somewhat similar to Wish You Well by David Baldacci or A Painted House by David Grisham. In some ways, there are similarities to the style of Nicholas Sparks, though I found this work to be (thankfully) missing the cliches and overdone melodrama of his works.

I would say this is definitely a book that should be published, and I hope you folks have a chance to give it a try at some point as well! It was really awesome.