Search - The Probable Future

First of all, the current murder plays very little in the story. It really functions to being the whole family back together in Unity, the Sparrows’ hometown, which was fine with me, but if a reader were looking for a good conclusion to that side plot, it isn’t here.

Each of the women has a gift or curse, depending on how you look at it. Stella, as we learn early, can see people’s deaths. She deals with it surprisingly well, actually, and she more than either of the other women, makes good use of her gift.

I loved this book. Jenny and Elinor have been estranged for years. Jenny has managed to drive a wedge between herself and Stella, despite how much she didn’t want to.Through the book, though, all three of them grow, learn to see the world and each other in different ways. They also learn about love, both for family and for the men in their lives.

Also, this is a spring book, beginning in March and ending in May. It is full of new beginnings, finding true love, and some losses, too. I have to admit that I needed a few tissues toward the end, just a warning.

The author has her own gift, that of confident narration. These are well-drawn characters who often inspire, simultaneously, the desire to give them tea and crackers and the desire to knock their heads together, with the portrayal of Brock Stewart perhaps the most touching.

Some fans might be disappointed by the lack of seamless integration of magic and realism in this novel, but others will be thankful the author did not force it upon a story which has its most honest moments between ordinary people.

Reconciliation and forgiveness are the main themes of the novel: about the need to forgive each other, forgive oneself and forgive past wrongs that have been carried down through generations. It is also about the transforming power of love. Hoffman contains her themes within an intricately weaved story that wraps around you like a warm blanket. It is a wonderful story of family love and the relationships between mothers and daughters.

A great novel full of magic and a bit of mystery.