Pieces of the Heart

No spoilers from this review…White writes in ripples. Each life flowing into another. Margaret into her daughter Caroline, Drew into his daughter Jewel. However, blockades negate strength and life from flowing. Not so with Rainy and Shelby(Jewel’s mother). Every character welcomes the ripples from those two lives. Misconceptions cloud Caroline’s past; choices haunt Drew but on a lake in the shadow of a mountain, barriers fade. Like threads joining quilting squares each one links to another to forge relationships and futures. Of note:White’s pithy humor is a winner.I felt medical details were stretched to fit a storyline but did not take away from the essence of an enjoyable, satisfying read.

Pieces of the Heart is a beautiful story about a the difficult relationship between Caroline and her mother, Margaret. When her health forces her to take a break, Caroline retreats to her family vacation home on a lake in the mountains of North Carolina to be nurtured by her mother. Their relationship had been difficult and distant since Caroline had left home years earlier to start her career as an accountant. In her vulnerability, Caroline rediscovers her mother and makes peace with their past. She also meets up with the attractive widower next door and his teenage daughter. In the end, she learns that their lives are entwined in ways she could never have imagined. All in all, Pieces of the Heart is a very sweet story of resolution, reconciliation and healing.

This book was packed full of inspired quotes that could be applied to anyone's troubled heart. a story of love shared, lost and found again ..Enjoyed and would highly recommend

I generally love Karen White books. This one took a little longer to really give me a feeling of being involved with the characters. The main female character was not totally likable until I got further into the book. In fact, she sometimes came across as rude and very unforgiving toward her mother. However, by midway through the novel, things started to get much more interesting. This is not my favorite of Karen White's books, but it still ended up being very enjoyable reading.

Loved this book. Very well drawn characters that make you think about you own relationships. I have read many books by Karen White and have loved them all. You learn so much about the southern states and what makes them unique.

I liked the book and was intrigued by some of the characters but it was not a book that I could not put down. Some of what bothered me was that it did not seem "real" in many ways...too many things, just too good to be true! I could not relate to it on a personal level. I was not "spell bound" and excited to see how it all ended. I would not make and effort to read another book by the same author.

Some books, that have a tragedy in the story, can make it so overwhelming that it shadows all of the goodness. Karen White balances enough of the loss or hurt, with growth and love, to make a balanced story. I believe Caroline's pain about the loss in her life. I understand why she is reluctant to take risks - either in swimming or in life or in love. And this novel brings in components that I personally value - children (especially young adults) and family ties (especially older women). I always leave Karen's books with a better 'refresher' of what is really important in life.

Accountant Caroline is recuperating from a bout of panic attacks at her mother's home and is stressed over the smothering that she is receiving. She rarely spends time in North Carolina since her brother Jude was killed in a car accident 13 years earlier. She gave up on her passion for swimming and quilting too. Always feeling like she lived in his shadow, Caroline has failed to move on from the catastrophic event which encompasses her ghostly existence. But she gets a new lease on life when Jewel, the daughter of her deceased friend bribes her into getting swimming lessons, and she trades barbs with Jewel's over-protective father Drew. While Caroline wallows in self pity, Jewel gets to know the mother she lost when she comes across an unfinished quilt and her mother's diary.White's story is thoroughly predictable and moves at a snail's pace. While I did shed tears at the end, I had a difficult time staying focused on the story because it just didn't capture my interest like her early novels. I liked Jewel getting to know her mother through the diary, but I just didn't get the connection between Caroline and Drew and long for the stories she used to write like "Falling Home."© Tracy Vest, December 2008

It puts me to sleepI have read nine of Karen White’s novels, including this one. So of course I enjoy them or I wouldn’t have continued to buy them. But this one is hard to get through.The story is about Caroline who left her successful accounting career temporarily to live with her mother, Margaret, due to a nervous meltdown. We meet Grandma Rainy, Mother-in-law of Drew, grandmother of Jewel and best friend of Margaret. We learn of Jude, Caroline’s brother, killed in an auto accident and Shelby, who died in a swim related incident. Shelby was once Jude’s closest friend and lover and later, after Jude died, the mother of Jewel and wife of Drew, who, after Shelby’s death, left a successful law practice to father Jewel.The book is fraught with sadness. Caroline is mourning the loss of her brother. Drew and Jewel are grieving the loss of their wife and mother. Caroline regards Margaret as a harridan because she’s always reminding her of her frail condition. Grandma Rainy is the referee between the grieving groups.But nothing of any significance or interest, beyond the story of the unfortunate deaths, is happening. Caroline has a serious condition we learn about, there’s a fairly predictable romance budding throughout the story and we learn little secrets hidden until the tale needs a boost. Actually, I am only 75% of the way through the book, reading on Amazon’s Paperwhite reader but I don’t think I can stay awake any longer. I think I’m going to close it now and read a more interesting book by Maeve Binchy or Margaret Atwood. Hopefully someone will finish the book and find it delightful.

Very obvious - nothing surprising.