The Forgotten Ones
by Steena Holmes
In this novel from a New York Times bestselling author, the search for truth is defined by secrets and lies.
Elle is a survivor. She’s managed to piece together a solid life from a childhood of broken memories and fairy tales her mom told her to explain away bad dreams. But weekly visits to her mother still fill Elle with a paralyzing fear she can’t explain. It’s just another of so many unanswered questions she grew up with in a family estranged by silence and secrets.
Elle’s world turns upside down when she receives a deathbed request from her grandfather, a man she was told had died years ago. Racked by grief, regrets, and a haunted conscience, he has a tale of his own to tell Elle: about her mother, an imaginary friend, and two strangers who came to the house one night and never left.
As Elle’s past unfolds, so does the truth—if she can believe it. She must face the reasons for her inexplicable dread. As dark as they are, Elle must listen…before her grandfather’s death buries the family’s secrets forever.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Truth be told, I’ve been ready to greet death for a while
now. But there’s a difference between greeting death and accepting it.
They say life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to
die. I tend to believe the memories of the life you miss surround you until
that’s all you see.
I guess in the end… you start thinking about the beginning.
I look at Mom in shock. The disdain in her voice is unexpected. Like
finding out the sweet little puppy you adopted is really a snarling,
ankle-biting, rabid wolf.
How are you doing? Do you need anything? Some water? Wine? A time machine
so we can start this day over?
I quickly tumbled into this divinely written and
evocative tale that was so lushly detailed, I felt like a spectator rather than
a reader. This was my first exposure to
the remarkably talented scribe known as Steena Holmes and I was an instant
convert to her cult. Ms. Holmes is a
master storyteller with major word voodoo.
I was enthralled, appalled, completely engaged, and immediately drawn to
the character of Elle, as I well know the chill of looking down your family
tree and seeing the deeply diseased roots of mental illness. My long-standing joke is that “stupid and
crazy is everywhere in my family forest.”
The storylines were ingeniously crafted, cleverly honed, and held taut
at a cunning and maddening pace to the very end. I was a quivering mess and consumed with curiously to unravel the
multiple layers of devious secrets Ms. Holmes had ruthlessly taunted me with,
secrets that had been literally and figuratively buried for over sixty
years. It was exquisite torture. Sigh, I’ve added her entire listing to my
TBR.
My Review:
Empress DJ
Steena Holmes
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author - Steena is the author of the heart-wrenching Finding Emma series.
The Word Game was included in the Top 20 Novels to be Written by Women in 2015 by Good Housekeeping.
Her latest novel - The Word Game won the 2015 USA Books Award for Best Fiction and her novel, The Memory Child was a finalist in the same category.
Steena Holmes grew up in a small town in Canada and holds a Bachelors degree in Theology.
In 2012 she received the Indie Excellence Award. Holmes was inspired to write Finding Emma after experiencing a brief moment of horror when she’d thought her youngest daughter was missing.
She currently lives in Calgary with her husband and three daughters and loves to wake up to the Rocky Mountains each morning.
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