Meanwhile her 17 year old son back in NYC makes long lasting decisions that impact both his and Elizabeth's lives. Growing up in a small town and without a father, Elizabeth longed to get away and now as a single mother herself to a teenage son she is none too pleased to be reunited with her judgmental extended family as she plans to clear the house for sale.

Meanwhile she is told that she has also inherited another house, by the sea, which had belonged to her father whom she had never known.This was powerful storytelling, with depth of both character and plot, the threads joining both eras all strongly interwoven. It's a bit of a roller coaster of discoveries and reveals, balancing between darkness and kindness all the way. Don't even get me started on why we get a separate POV for Rosemary, it wasn't necessary and added nothing to the story. While staying at her mother's home, Elizabeth is informed there's a codicil to her mother's will and also finds letters from her father that he wrote to her mother almost 40 years ago. Stumbling across a small wooden box of letters penned to her mother in the early Seventies in response to a lonely hearts advert by the man she has been told is her father it provides her first opportunity to learn more about Edward Foley.

I really wanted to like this, and I'm not saying it's a bad book, but I was hoping for so much more than "eh, it's okay" from it.

I don't like to do that with NetGalley reads though, so I may have to rethink on that in the future. Then”: 32-year-old “spinster,” Patricia Keane, having cared for her ailing mother for 14 years, places a “Lonely Heart” ad seeking male companionship after her mother finally dies. For me it wasn't quite up to the mark of Holding which I loved but this nevertheless was read very quickly.