Monday, June 1, 2009

Eva Marie Everson



Dear Readers,

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but it is a good story. Eva Marie Everson is maybe best know for her series The Potluck Club written with Linda Evans Shepherd. It is a qurky little series followed by Potluck Catering Club. I have enjoyed all those books and I guess that made me expect that sort of book this time also. To say the least, this is not that kind of book.

Things Left Unspoken is a look at family history and how it isn't always what we think it is. Jo-Lynn Hunter returns home for her beloved Uncle Jim's funeral. She had spent lots of time with Uncle Jim and Aunt Stella. They were like the grandparents she never had. She loved them both dearly, especially Uncle Jim. Fishing with him and spending her summers there are some of her best memories.

The day of the funeral Aunt Stella asks Jo-Lynn to help renovate the house she has lived in all of her life. It was her parents house before she and Jim moved in. There is a development company that wants to update the town and make the "big house," that is what everyone calls it, the museum for the town. Which means lots of updating and cleaning of the house to make it ready.

There is someone in town not happy about the renovations. They are determined to stop Jo-Lynn. There doesn't seem to be much they won't do to stop her. She can't figure out why they are just upset about the renovations of the house and not the rest of the town. She can't figure out why anyone would dislike her Aunt and Uncle enough to stop her.

Cottonwood Georgia could be any small town in the south. Every town big or small has its secrets. Some people will go to great lengths to stop people from discovering these secrets. Others are just not ready to learn the secrets either.

I really enjoyed this book. It is plain and simply a good story. It has a bit of the mystery/crime scene story line to it, but that is not the main focus of the story. It is really a story of a marriage in trouble and a family secrets that maybe shouldn't have been kept.

Happy Reading

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your review! I really enjoyed writing Things Left Unspoken, and -- yes -- this is a far leap from The Potluck Club kind of stories. But I hope my fans will enjoy this story ... and it IS quite a story!

I was inspired to write Things Left Unspoken when my mother sold her grandparent's home -- the one my great-aunt Della had grown up in and lived in all her life -- to a woman who wanted to restore it. The restoration never happened.

You know, for a novelist -- and a story-teller -- sometimes its the littlest things that make us go ... um, what if?????? And then we're off on our own storymaking adventure.

Again, thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed Things Left Unspoken. The emails I've received so far have been VERY positive. :)

Eva Marie Everson
Author, Things Left Unspoken

Chris Jager - Baker Book House-fiction buyer said...

Thank You Eva. I love to hear the stories behind the stories! Thank you for sharing it with us. I am recommending it to all those loyal fiction readers. Can't wait for your next one. :-)