Starred review from June 1, 2015
Dr. Alison McAdams knows she has spent the last year sleepwalking through life. Six weeks before their wedding, Ali's fiance, Andrew Morris, committed suicide, and shortly thereafter, Ali's mother died. Now Ali's father, Bill, is her only remaining close relative, and she constantly worries about him since he refuses to leave Napa Valley and move to Arizona to live with her. When her father calls to tell her he has broken his wrist, Ali sees it as an opportunity to try to convince him to move. While visiting him, Alison gets to know a number of the other residents at his retirement community, including sharp-tongued and still sharp-witted nonagenarian Edie Stephens, who introduces a secondary plotline about the German Resistance during WWII, an aspect of the war rarely dramatized in popular fiction. Ultimately, what Ali discovers about Edie's past helps her chart a new future for herself. Porter (The Good Wife, 2013) doesn't shy away from tackling tough emotional issues such as grief and guilt in her latest, superbly written women's fiction title, but the healing powers of family, friendship, and love do finally work their uplifting magic by the story's soul-satisfying conclusion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)