Better to Trust

It's always fun to win something, right? There was a giveaway for an Advanced Reader Copy of Heather Frimmer's new  novel, Better to Trust. Imagine my delight when I was notified that I won one of two copies of the book being given away. Since I've been doing most of my reading on the Kindle - and this was a paperback - I waited to start until we headed to the beach in September. I was engaged from page one. It took me longer to finish than it should have because once home, I really had to find time to finish a paperback book. This weekend was that time!

Once trust is broken, how easy is it to get it back? Better to Trust is a family drama. Alison has a bleed on the brain, needs surgery, decides to go with her brother-in-law, a famed neurosurgeon, even though a few people suggested that it was a terrible idea for Grant to operate on a family member. Meanwhile, Grant had his own secrets which made him truly not a good choice for the one to perform the surgery.

While Grant and his wife, Cynthia, Alison's sister, are preoccupied worrying about Alison, their daughter Sadie feels rejected. She's also really missing her Aunt Alison. Sadie makes a new friend who is not the best influence. Lots of trust issues erupt once Sadie and Piper start spending more time together.

Meanwhile, after surgery a rift develops between Alison and Cynthia who had previously been very close. What will it take to repair their relationship?

Finally, there's the issue of trust between Alison and her husband, Michael. Alison has got a secret, but does she blow things up while Michael has been so attentive to her during her rehabilitation after surgery?

I got sucked into the story from the first page. A well-developed story with interesting characters. My favorite character of the whole novel was Nate, the elementary school-aged son of the caregiver Alison had after she got home from the hospital. He reminded me of how much I miss having kids in my life.

I do have one complaint about the book related to the structure. The story had two converging timelines, starting in March, when Alison first got sick, and then another timeline several months later. The two timelines weren't distinct enough and sometimes it got confusing about what time period I was reading about, even though each chapter heading was dated. I think it might have been easier to read if the story had been told chronologically. Small complaint.

I'd recommend this one.