Rain on your Wedding Day
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| 4/5 |
The blurb was straightforward, although I hadn't a clue as to what 'Southern Gothic' meant.
As I began to read the sample, I was drawn straight into the POV of Will Morse and immediately connected with his longing to be close to his daughter again after a tragic event. I was able, within a few paragraphs, to grasp the mood of the book and know exactly what the main character was feeling--brilliant! I'm buying!
Will Morse has taken himself to an old vacation cabin in the North Georgia mountains and had been there for five years; divorced from his wife and his last remaining child. But his child, an adult daughter called Alicia, calls him to tell him the news that she's getting married and she wants him at the ceremony. This is how the story begins. I thought it was going to be straightforward, but another tragedy and then a startling discovery about one of the main characters keeps me turning the pages.
The back-story was confusing at times as sometimes I found myself thinking I was in the present with Will, when in fact, I had been taken back a few years. That was my only criticism.
The emotion running through the book felt very real, and at times the depressive mood of it had me putting the book down several times, but that's not a criticism just my perspective. It's a gritty book and has excellent dialogue.
There were some great lines to lighten the tone: It was a good thing he was an ethnomusicologist; he would have starved to death as an actor. And: I looked a bit like Denver Pyle on the old Grizzly Adams TV show--the eccentric mountain man, but without the folksy.
Rain on your Wedding Day is a contemporary book, not really a romance, although there is romance in the story. The ending all came together nicely that made you feel pleased that Will was going to be happy at last.
Blurb:
RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY is a modern Southern Gothic novel about one family's tragic past and the consequences that it holds for their future.
Five years ago, Will Morse was arrested and charged with the murder of his youngest daughter Trixie. Will maintained his innocence, and claimed that Trixie's death was a suicide. Although Will escaped criminal charges, he lost his job as a Coca-Cola executive in the scandal. His wife, Danielle, left him, convinced that he had some role in Trixie's death. Distraught and racked by grief and guilt, Will retreated to the safety and silence of a remote cabin in the North Georgia wilderness.
Will's only connection to the outside world is a phone call he receives once a year, at Christmas, from his daughter Alicia. But this year, Alicia calls to tell Will that she is paying him a visit. Alicia arrives with her fiancée in tow, and tells Will that she expects him to attend the wedding in the spring.
Will wants to rekindle his relationship with her daughter, especially once he learns that she is pregnant. However, Will fears that attending the wedding will bring up painful memories from his past, and lead to conflict with his ex-wife and her family, who still blame him for Trixie's death.
Will develops a relationship with Dot Crawford, an English professor, who makes a chance visit to his cabin. The relationship flowers into a romantic friendship, and Will begins to open up to Dot about his tragic past. But Will soon learns that Dot is not all that she appears, and breaks off the relationship.
On the eve of Alicia's wedding, Will must confront the guilt and shame that he feels, and seek forgiveness for his actions that put Trixie in danger, and decide whether to reach out to Dot and forgive her for her betrayal.
RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAYis a poignant, moving tale about the need for forgiveness, redemption, and Coca-Cola.
