What an amazing, heartfelt story about love and loss and learning to deal with grief. Once I started this novel I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day. I was greatly touched by the characters and their journeys of friendship and love. ( )

Thanks to LibraryThing and Bethany House Publishers for an advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

Friendship, grief, and forgiveness are the hope-filled themes of this absorbing 5-star novel that can be summarized as “Three friends. Two broken promises. One missing manuscript.”

The novel begins with Ingrid trying to redeem her professional reputation as senior acquisitions editor at a San Francisco publishing house by locating a missing manuscript written by Cece, her recently deceased best friend and award-winning novelist. The present day story alternates with the past (written by Cece) as she explains what has happened via a history she wrote and left for Ingrid and Joel to read together.

The characters are all believable, the story is captivating, the villain is thoroughly devious. Author Nicole Deese skillfully describes the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape as well as the emotions and struggles of the three main characters. Perhaps this story is especially authentic because it’s based on the author’s own grief experience – she lost her little sister at the age of 26, the same age as her character Cece.

Ingrid describes her relationship with Cece and Joel as the novel begins, “The three of us had been something wonderful once upon a time, sharing a bond in friendship that was almost too good to be true, but it hadn’t been that way for many years now. It was death that had divided our original trio into a duo, and death, once again, that had divided our duo into two broken individuals who’d lived as little more than strangers up until a week ago.”

This un-putdownable novel is a romance, a mystery, and a story of love, loyalty and the power of friendship. I highly recommend it. ( )

I can finally write a review of this book after waiting a day for the tears to dry. What an emotional and heartbreaking read. You can tell that every word was poured into this book directly from the author's own tears and grief. It shows in every line and scene. I don't think I've ever read an author who has every nuance of every dialogue between characters so exactly right. My heart broke right along with Ingrid and Joel, Cece and Wendy. I even spared some tears for Captain Hal. This was a magnificent tour de force. And even though it was emotionally wrenching, I know I'll find myself wanting to return to this place again, to check in on these characters once again. And I can't say that about too many books. Excellent! ( )

It felt like a good mix of emotions: grief, love, bitterness, homecoming, regret, relief, sacrifice, hope..... As I was lead along toward the ending, I hoped I was predicting correctly, but couldn't be sure until the end when things were resolved and/or explained. This is a book with Christian characters and principles, but it didn't feel to push it or hit you over the head with it, it was just a part of who they were and brought up occasionally. And I'm always a sucker for a book about books! This book fulfilled that in a few different ways, so that was satisfying. I recommend it! ( )

A young book editor's boss threatens to have her fired unless she can find the lost manuscript of the fifth volume of a popular five-volume series by an author who died. The author happens to have been the editor's best friend. The editor has been avoiding the author's family because she thought the author's cousin was to blame for her father's death. The editor works through all her painful memories and, of course, keeps her job and gets her man, and everyone who's still alive lives happily ever after. Stories as sweet as this one should only happen in real life. People who buy sweet romances will love it. ( )