Review: The View from Prince Street by Mary Ellen Taylor

Title: The View from Prince Street
Author: Mary Ellen Taylor
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: January 5, 2016 (Today!)
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Rae McDonald was fifteen when a car accident took her sister’s life and threw her own into reckless turmoil. When she got pregnant a year later, she found a loving couple to adopt the child. Since then, she’s buried her grief and guilt under a heart of stone.

Lisa Smyth survived the fateful crash, but never told the truth about what happened. And when a family obligation draws her back to Alexandria, the weight of Lisa’s guilt grows heavier by the day.
As both women confront a past refusing to be forgotten, long-buried artifacts are discovered by the Shire Architectural Salvage Company that point to a shared history between families.  Now, Rae and Lisa must finally ask themselves if denying the past is worth sacrificing the future."

My Two Cents:

"The View from Prince Street" is the story of two women who are linked by a tragic event in their past that neither of them really wants to discuss. It happened when they were teenagers and now that they are adults neither of them feels like the still want to talk about what happened that fateful day. They eventually realize that in order to begin to move past that event they have to talk about it. This is the second book in the author's Alexandria series. This is very much a standalone book so you don't need to go back and read the first book if you don't want to. After reading this book, I do want to go back and read the first book in the series though!

I was drawn to this book by the local connection initially. Alexandria, Virginia sits just outside of Washington, D.C. and it's a place that I love to visit. Even though it's very close to the nation's capital, it still feels like a small town. The author includes a lot of local landmarks in and around the town of Alexandria that it really brought this book to life for me. The setting is great!

At first, I felt like the author was giving a little bit too much detail and telling instead of showing in the beginning of the book. Eventually the narrative really evens out and I got very into the book and the story of Rae and Lisa. Both women deal with their feelings in very different ways which makes for a very interesting juxtaposition. I really liked how the author was able to create two very different characters. I felt for them for different reasons. I was a little bit more drawn to Rae's story since she almost seems to be affected a little bit more by the past than Lisa does. Overall, this was a great story about family and how it is important to deal with those hard things that may be holding you back!