Review: The Violets of March

The Violets of March: A Novel by Sarah Jio
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 304 (paperback)


From Amazon:

A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.
In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.

My Rating:

My Review:
After suffering from a traumatic life altering event, Emily returns to Bainbridge Island, home of many childhood memories, to heal.  There she attempts to find herself and solve an age old mystery that appears to have affected her family for some time.  There she finds happiness and sadness and discovers that there are multiple ways to heal.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and felt like Banbridge Island was a place I would love to be.  The family mystery portion of the novel was very intriguing and believable.  Everything really made sense when the story unfolded.  There were a few times where I doubted some of Emily's feelings as being uncharacteristic of someone in her situation but overall I thought it could be my lack of experience over such matters.  Everyone is talking about great beach reads and I would like to nominate this one.  It was a nice calming experience with a well-written plot and connection to the island.  I liked Emily and all the rest of the characters in the book though I was not especially attached to anyone.  I'm glad that I didn't put this feel good read off too long.