Review: The Sound of Glass by Karen White

Title: The Sound of Glass
Author: Karen White
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: NAL
Publish Date: May 12, 2015
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward’s husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news—Cal’s family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal’s reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt.

Charting the course of an uncertain life—and feeling guilt from her husband’s tragic death—Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal’s unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff. This unknown legacy, now Merritt’s, will change and define her as she navigates her new life—a new life complicated by the arrival of her too young stepmother and ten-year-old half-brother.

Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country."

My Two Cents:

"The Sound of Glass" is a story about a couple families who are connected in very unexpected ways. When Merritt inherits her husband's grandmother's house after he passes away, she leaves New England for a new life and a new start in South Carolina. She's hoping for some time to herself to deal with some of the hurt she felt at the hand of her husband. Her look for solitude is broken quickly when her stepmother, Loralee, and her half-brother, Owen show up at her house looking for a place to stay. Loralee says that they're only going to stay "a little while" but "a little while" turns into something much longer. Eventually Merritt begins to understand that her life is better with people surrounding her rather than trying to shut herself off from the world. As she is trying to put herself back together, she meets her late husband's brother, Gibbes, who will change her life in a lot of ways. This is a story of family, love, hurt and redemption and there is a good deal of mystery at the center of it. In the 1950s, Merritt's husband's grandmother witnesses a plane crash over her home. She becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what happened and why. In this book, we learn that the past can be connected to the present in the most surprising of ways.

I really enjoyed this book. This is the first book that I've ever read by Karen White but I know this is not going to be the last time that I read anything by her. There's so much going for this book! It has a lot of great characters, who feel really real. There's an interesting mystery that definitely kept me guessing through out the book. There's good thoughts on how important family is whether it's the family we have or the family we choose. There is even a good romance! I ate it all up. This is definitely one of those books that I was sad about when it ended. I wanted more!

The characters were definitely stand out for me. Even with as prickly as she is, I really liked Merritt. You can see that she's hiding a lot and is trying to cope with a lot on her own. I definitely felt for her. Loralee is loving and always has a little bit of advice for every given situation. These women are very different from each other however when they finally come together it's something really unique and special. I also just adored Gibbes. What a great guy!

I don't want to give too much away about the mystery surrounding the plane crash at the center of the book so I won't say too much on that aspect. I love when an author can keep me on my toes and keep me guessing and the author definitely did that throughout this book. I definitely didn't see what was coming at the end of the book! It's always nice not to be able to guess how things are going to come together.

I think this book had a really good message about how the past doesn't have to be doomed to repeat itself even when it seems like it's inevitable. Overall, this book was definitely a delight and I look forward to reading more by the author in the future!