BOOK REVIEW - Wedding Ring by Emilie Richards

I became very excited about this book from the moment I read the authors note at the beginning of the book and learnt that one of the central themes was quilting. I love fibre arts (this week seems to be secret confessions of a Trashionista) and was eager to get reading! I was also intrigued by the blurb describing the book as being about a woman returning to her grandmother's home to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother to clear the family home. Was this to be a tale of secrets and revelations? I was hoping so...

Tessa and her mother, Nancy, are summoned to Helen's (that's Tessa's grandmother, Nancy's mother) home by a concerned neighbour. Over the past few months Helen has systematically removed herself from the tight-knit community in which she lives, no one has seen her leave the house in weeks. Nancy is concerned that the time has come that Helen needs to move out of the isolated mountains she has lived in all her lifetime - she's getting too old to manage on her own. Helen is stubborn and forthright, the last thing she wants is to move into the type of retirement community her meddling daughter would see her holed up in. Tessa, well she's been brought in as a mediator but she's still trying to come to terms with the death of her young daughter just three years ago.

When Tessa and Nancy reach Helen's mountainside house they are shocked by the level of disarray it has fallen into. Helen has been hoarding anything and everything - refusing to leave the old way of life in which you didn't throw away anything that might be useful. They begin to clear through the piles whilst Helen hides away, resentful of their presence in her home. Each woman is caught up in her own troubles, each has something they are trying to run away from. Living in close quarters however they start to lern to live with each other, a process that is aided by the discovery of the quilts Helen has spent her life creating. Each one contains stories and memories, and as these are shared the women begin to open up.

This is a story about family and the bonds created by it. It deals with big issues such as failing marriages, the death of a child, and the difficulties of these bonds with a general sense of ease. The book was warmly written and very difficult to put down. The characters were well written - I could see members of my own family in each of them.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a book they can really get involved in and care about. My only quibble is that it is the first in a trilogy - I don't want to have to wait for the second and third installments!!

Rating : 4 out of 5

Like this? Try 'Beautiful Bodies' by Laura Shaine Cunningham

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