Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For a character-based reader like me, this book is pure nirvana. It brought me to my knees. After finishing the last page, I wanted to reach out to every literary reader I know and say, “You must read this.” And that’s what I’m saying now, in my review. I’m not even going to get into the plot. Suffice to say that two NYPD cops – Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope – end up living next door to each other, raising their families in a quiet town close to NYC. Eventually, the families become linked by love, struggles, and tragic life events. How this occurs is for the reader to discover. What’s more important are the themes. The book is about how one thing leads to another which leads to another and eventually, how the last fallen domino skids far from the neatly toppled row. It’s about how we cannot escape the damage done to us in our past, but instead, can confront it to build a semblance of a future. But most of all, it’s about the power of love and redemption: how we can lose our footing, lose our path, and in some cases, even lose our mind, but still be worthy of forgiveness. It’s also about what it means to be a success: not what we accumulate or what we accomplish but how many people love us and believe in us when it really matters. The genuineness of these damaged and striving characters is so real that I found that soon after starting the book, my emotions were intertwined with theirs. I don’t know who Mary Beth Keane is or where she came from, but I do know she has her finger on the pulse of the human heart. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.