Customer Reviews

Pieces of the Heart

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thirty-one years old Atlanta accountant Caroline Collier has not lived only existed in thirteen years since the death of her beloved younger brother Jude. She has the scar on her chest to remind her of what he donated to her when he died at the accident that almost killed her too. Now she is staying with her overbearing mother Margaret at the family vacation cottage at Lake Ophelia in the North Carolina mountains while she recovers from recent panic attacks caused by stress on the job and failures to gain closure from Jude's death and her father's desertion.

Next door is former attorney turned master furniture maker Drew Reed and his teenage daughter Jewel. His late wife Shelby Ann was actually Jude's significant other before the teen died. Jewel and her Granny Rainy begin to get Caroline to quilt and swim while Drew finds himself attracted to the girl next door who when she is not scowling is pretty. Though the trio and Margaret reach out to her, Caroline needs to let go of the past if she wants to live life to the fullest with people who love her.

This is a terrific insightful character study that focuses on several individuals struggling differently with the deaths of loved ones. Caroline who has not completed the five phases of grief is time-locked in the grieving stage mostly because she was there and in his death he saved her life. Her mother cannot stop fussing while her father fled to the West Coast and like Drew and an injured loon reinvented his life. Granny turned to her granddaughter and Jewel cherishes her late mother's diary as her survival mechanism. Fans of a deep poignant family drama will appreciate this powerful look at how people deal with the death of a loved one.

Harriet Klausner

Stress from Caroline's job as an accountant is forcing her to take a leave from work, and seeking solace and recovery, she joins her family in North Carolina. Time off brings her anything but peace, however: memories of her dead younger brother haunt her even as she faces a stormy relationship with her mother. Family secrets and family healing permeate a moving story of an adult seeking peace with her past.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

I have just started reading Karen White books and am thrilled to say she is just wonderful. Each book has been filled with great characterizations and fabulous stories. As I read each book I find myself saying "WOW where have you been all my life??" The stories AND the people are so real...I am crying and laughing and thinking and wanting! I wouldn't hesitate to buy any book of hers and I sure will not hesitate to read them again and again.
Thanks Karen White!

Once again, Karen White has taken me away to the perfect lake house - in her last book, "The Color of Light" I immediately called my travel agent and booked a beach house for the summer (in the middle of January). Now I want to rent a lake house! Karen is such a talented writer that I believe all of the characters are my friends and that I am actually in the story. I couldn't put the book down. Now that I'm finished, I can't wait until the next book!

The book was funny and sad. Very much enjoy the writing of Karen White.

I have recently discovered Karen White's books and I have been delighted with each one that I've read. She really knows how to keep my interest with the mystery and I find myself staying up too late reading just one more chapter every night. Her wording flows beautifully and I create pictures in my mind's eye with every page.

Karen White seems to be another one of those authors that once I find, I want to read everything she had written. I really got engrossed in this book but at the end I felt a little let down.

It did have a slow start, having Caroline living with her mother temporarily (having taken a leave of work due to health reasons) and being just a complete bitter soul. I was hoping she would change by the end of the book and I was pleased that she did. There's a very wonderful part of the book where Caroline just lets everything she's feeling out. Her guilt and pain about her brother's death is very obvious throughout the book, and it's also quickly obvious who the donor of the heart transplant was though she does not actually state who until the near end.

The point of the book I would consider the B-plot story was Shelby's diary. It's only sparingly used so I feel but from the start I found myself imagining the character and of writing her book and seeing the things she saw. I have a soft spot for redheaded characters and I felt that Shelby, and Jewel, would grow to be favorites. However at the end I felt like hating Shelby. I felt she betrayed everyone. Even the moving scene at the cemetery where Caroline finally sees Jude's gravesite, which is right next to Shelby's, I was feeling pretty bitter towards her. Yes she loved Jude but she just came off as a horrible person to me.

Jewel and Rainy are two of Karen's characters that I felt I could automatically just like. Maragret grew on me, especially towards the end. She just completely changed. For the better. Drew I felt pretty indifferent about. He had his moments where he was great and then moments where I did not like him so much either.

As for the story itself, it's not so much a mystery and I don't think I could call it a flat out romance either. But for the most part it was wonderfully done. There were moments when I found myself putting the book down due to tears and other times where I just wanted to get back to the exciting parts. I can't say I've read many of Karen's books (just three at the moment) but this hasn't been my favorite.

Wonderful book. Having been raised in a small town, it was very easy to relate to the characters and the situation. By the end they seemed like the family next door.

This was a sad story as Caroline struggles with her past and a little romance is in the works at the same time. Lots of twist and turns to keep you interested. Loved the story so much I'm reading another one of Karen's books.

A bit different from previous Karen White stories, but wonderful nonetheless. I felt the tears coming about the third chapter. And by the end they were flowing with love for the characters she made real. It felt as if I were there with them. Perfect book, and a keeper.