Reprise Review: The Taste of Air by Gail Cleare

 Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Women’s Fiction

Description:

“A simple phone call disrupts Nell Williams’s well-ordered life. Her mother, Mary, is in a hospital in Vermont. But her mother is supposed to be safely tucked away in an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, so Nell can’t fathom why she would be so far from home.

After notifying her sister, Bridget, Nell hops on a plane and rushes to her mother’s side. There, she discovers that her mother has been living a second life. Mary has another home and a set of complex relationships with people her daughters have never met.

When Nell and Bridget delve deeper into their mother’s lakeside hideaway, they uncover a vault of family secrets and the gateway to change for all three women.”

Author:

“USA Today bestselling author Gail Cleare has written for newspapers, magazines, Fortune 50 companies and AOL. Her award-winning ad agency represented the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was the turtle Leonardo's date for the world premiere of the second TMNT movie, and got to wear a black evening gown and sparkly shoes. Gail lives on an 18th century farm in Massachusetts with her family and dogs, cats, chickens, black bears, blue herons, rushing streams and wide, windy skies. She's into organic gardening and nature photography, and can often be found stalking wild creatures with a 300 mm lens.”

For more, visit her website.

Appraisal:

While not a mystery, The Taste of Air has a bit of a mystery at its root. How did Nell’s mother get from an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts to a Vermont hospital? As Nell and her sister Bridget uncover the answer to that question, an answer that is far more complicated than they would have dreamed, it sets the stage for them and the reader to consider a lot of things. How well do we really know the people we think we know best? Odds are you’re hiding things from your kids, parents, and/or spouse, not to mention other family and friends. What makes you think they aren’t doing the same?

While I enjoyed The Taste of Air for the story, full of suspense, mystery, and drama, which kept me entertained, it also got me thinking. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published June 30, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

No issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words