Linda Barrett

House on the Beach by Linda Barrett
Laura comes to the island to recuperate and the real estate agent has the perfect house for her. It's held by a trust and they coup some of the monthly costs so her cost is lower than normal.
Love the area of the island offshore of the mainland. Lots of time to walk on the beach and think. Her mother is now gone and she had given up so much of her life to tend to her needs. She's also a few years cancerfree.
Love her career of being in broadcast business and is going to make audio tapes of the classics. She meets the plumber Matt who is constantly watching her, her moves and the house she is staying in.
Love who the Romeo's stand for and how caring and sharing the community is. She finds a cat and during a storm one night agrees to stay with Matt and his family. His son Casey has a speech impediment but she spends a lot of time and has a lot of patience to deal with him.
They've lost their mother and that's when his speech went. She had taken therpy classes and understands what he needs...
Matt is an old boyfriend from the island when she was a teen and the family summered on the island. After that year she never returned...
House has been known to cure ailments.....missing brother-the details come out over time....her cancer may be back....how can they even think of a relationship...
Excerpt from the next in the series is included. Like authors style of writing and locations.… (more)

FAMILY INTERRUPTED is my first read by Linda Barrett, who is the best-selling author of 13 novels. I was intrigued by the synopsis of the story and yet it was a topic I didn't really want to read about. Claire and Jack and are the parents of Ian, a senior, and Kayla, age 12. One fateful afternoon, Claire lingers after her art class talking to her handsome professor and accepting his many compliments on her artwork. Claire ends up arriving home late, to police cars and an ambulance in front of their house. Kayla ends up dying as the result of being hit by a car while trying to catch a football thrown by her brother. Their family, their careers, their passions and their way of communicating are forever changed. Each of them are struggling with their own grief and for Claire, it ends up consuming her.

I must admit, this was a tough one to get through. It was depressing and as a mom, I felt the pain of grief as I read each page. I can't imagine losing one of our children and how our family would be forever changed. There were many times when I had to put the book down and ignore it for awhile. I also found some parts of the book to be a bit unbelievable. After Ian graduated from high school, he moved out and for two years never looked back. His parents never called him, never saw where he lived or worked, or knew anything about his life. Even in grief, I can't imagine completely ignoring my other children and I found myself continually frustrated by Ian's and his parents behavior. Other parts of their grief, I did find realistic, saying "I will not cry for at least an hour" made perfect sense to me.

The author did paint the picture of grief for this family. Their pain was evident on the pages and the descriptions of Claire's artwork she created to remember Kayla were vivid and imaginative. I also found the pain of Sarah, the driver that killed Kayla, to be very understandable. The tragedy happened to her too and changed her direction, dreams, and hopes all in one second.

Eventually Claire has to decide if she is going to allow grief and blame to take hold of her life and her marriage, as well as Sarah's fragile hold on life. Claire has become so focused on Kayla that she begins to ignore those in her life that are still living. A surprise shows up at Claire's door and will help her change her outlook for the future. But, will her husband, parents, sister and son still be there to welcome her back? As Claire realizes the mistakes she has made, you can feel the weight lift off her shoulders and have hope that they can find happiness again. As Claire makes peace with herself, she needs to make peace with her daughter as well. Claire's conversation with her daughter's portrait was heartfelt, honest, and emotional. It was a beautiful way for Claire to bring closure and move forward in the healing of her family. It was a very well written passage.

Overall, it was a novel that I was glad I had read. I think there would be a lot of a discussion around this book. Grief, betrayal, parenting, family relationships, and hope are some possible topics and would keep a book club talking for a long time. There are also discussion questions available at the end of the book, if needed.… (more)