On Hummingbird Wings...Review

About the book:
"But Mother is always dying," is Gillian Ormsby's sarcastic response when her younger, favored sister tells her that she has to go take care of their hypochondriac mother. Much against her will, since she and her mother never have gotten along, Gillian arrives in California to find the garden and yard dead, the blinds all drawn, and her mother indeed in bed—waiting to die. But when Gillian talks with the doctor, he assures her there's no medical reason behind her mother's state.


Now on a mission to restore her mother to health, Gillian insists Mother get out of bed, eat, exercise and hopefully, choose to live. She also sets about reviving the garden to its former glory, enlisting the help of Adam, a handsome man who owns a family gardening business with his father. Gillian is delighted when a pair of hummingbirds appear, and her friendship with Adam grows.


Soon, Mother's health improves, and one day she announces she and her friend Enzio are going on a cruise. Before Gillian has time to turn around, her mother is gone and she is left high and dry again, and wondering, what is she going to do with the rest of her own life?


A light, mildly Christian story about family relationships.  It was hard to get into and even harder to follow.  Gillian is the successful, career driven older sister who has little time or understanding for her younger sister.  Allison was an annoying, whiny woman who wouldn't talk without sulking or complaining and who gave every impression of being an unhappily married woman and then suddenly becomes nice towards the end.  When we finally meet her family, we find that they're nice and normal and her husband is pretty cool, with no signs of any difficulties.  It was a strange, abrupt turn.

Gillian's Mom spends the first half of the book angry, depressed and convinced she's dying.  Yet, practically overnight she suddenly snaps out of it and goes off on a cruise with her friend.  Again, a strange, abrupt turn of events.

The entire story was somewhat disjointed and just didn't flow well.  My copy is an ARC and perhaps some of these structural issues are resolved in the final copy. I did love the San Francisco Bay Area setting.  I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and I know the areas described here, well.  The nostalgia was nice, but this is a light diversion, nothing more. 

Thanks to Sarah Reck of FaithWords for the opportunity to review this book.  You can learn more about Lauraine Snelling here. You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 4/11

* *
2/5 Stars

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