This novel by Kristin Hannah was an earlier writing, it was copyright in 2001. Her later books are more in depth with a focus on history but nonetheless. it was still an enjoyable read.

It starts out in Seattle Washington with a woman talk show host named Nora who gives moral advice to callers. She is well known and loved and very successful. She has two daughters and is divorced. She left her husband with the two daughters and did not contact them for a long time. She had a short relationship with a man and racy photos were taken to emerge years later when she became a well known radio personality.

Ruby, is one of the daughters, who has held a grudge against her mother for 10 years. She would return gifts and letters unopened. She felt great rage toward her and it did not help her personally. She was a funny person and wanted to be a comedian. There was a boyfriend that she lived with but after five years he walked out on her. Her manager worked hard for her but it wasn’t working out either. The money was short, the boyfriend helped with the rent but that was gone and she was very down.

The other sisters name is Caroline and she has kept a relationship up with her mother. It is never an easy relationship but still a relationship. She is married with children and appears to have a successful marriage on the surface, but that story will emerge eventually.

The story of the father/husband does emerge later in the story too but this is a story of pain, anger, discussion, forgiveness, discovery and love.

When the man came out and was blackmailing Nora for a million dollars about the racy pictures that were taken years before. Her audience were so disappointed and were turning their backs on her. She drank too much one night and had a serious accident.

Ruby was the only person who had the time (since she was out of work at the moment) to get Nora to their summer island for recuperation. Nora wanted to go there so no one would find her.

For Ruby, this brought back so many memories of playmates who were two brothers and she had not kept in touch with them either. Sadly, the one brother was dying of cancer and the other had taken over the family business of book publishing. He was not married and had one sexual encounter after another but always seemed to be seeking something.

This is where everyone will converge along with their stories and I am leaving it for you to read the book. Once again I enjoyed this novel by Kristin Hannah.