Sandy M’s review of It’s You by Jane Porter
Women’s Fiction published by Berkley 2 Jun 15
This is my first Jane Porter novel that isn’t truly a romance, so all I knew I was going to get for sure is a good story. What I did get is exactly that, but I ended up with so much more as the book takes turns I didn’t expect. I’m sure I’m as surprised about those turns in Alison McAdams’ life as she is, as she tries to bounce back from a horrible tragic event, another unimaginable surprise she never saw coming.
It’s been a year and Ali is still reeling after the suicide of her fiance, Andrew, a fellow dentist in his father’s Scottsdale office. Her mother’s death six months later is another blow, and her father now resides in a senior center in Napa Valley. Taking several weeks off work to make sure her father is truly okay after a fall, Ali is finding it difficult to spend time with her dad with all his new friends and acquaintances in the mix. Since he refuses to return with her to Arizona, she has no choice but join in meals and other activities with his circle of seniors.
One such senior is Edie, a ninety-something acerbic great aunt to a handsome winery owner who Ali shouldn’t be noticing. She’s not ready for another man in her life, but the attraction is there, and he ends up being someone she can call on later when things go wrong. Little by little, though, she begins to get to know Edie and eventually understand her a bit better. She learns Edie had her own love of her life who she lost during WWII. Edie herself was studying music in Germany when the world began to crumble.
Though Ali has made a routine for herself, helping a new-found friend in a flower shop and seeing her dad as often as possible, she decides to make the journey to Germany to see the places and perhaps experience some of the long-ago feelings and emotions Edie herself went through during the days of Hitler and his regime and how some Germans worked against that power-hungry man’s plans. Ali has with her Edie’s diary from all those years ago, and I have to say Ms. Porter does an excellent job of describing what life in Germany at that time may have been like. This is one point of view of those times that I don’t think has been done, or at least not very often. Everything is through Edie’s eyes and heart, staying with her officer husband who she loves despite the ever-growing danger as the days, weeks, and months move on.
This part of the book is the unexpected part from when I first began reading. Though it still has to do with Alison’s healing, I never imagined such a trip for her and me as I read. I’ve not heard many stories of those who tried to stop Hitler in his evil tracks, so this inside view behind the scenes, so to speak, adds a much richer depth to the book. Ali is, obviously, changed by her experience and she discovers maybe she is finally ready to move on, to start living again. In that respect, there’s not much closure to the story – we know she’s going to move on with Edie’s great nephew, but it’s Ali who needs and gets her closure, piecing herself back together despite having no answers to such a horrible time in her life, not needing them now after her journey.
A wonderfully written story that I highly recommend. Jane Porter has poured her heart and soul into this one; therefore, it should be shared as much as possible.
Grade: B+
Summary:
In the wake of a tragedy that tore her life down to the foundations, Dr. Alison McAdams has lost her way. So when she’s summoned to Napa to care for her ailing father, she’s not sure she has anything to offer him—or anyone else.
What Ali finds in Northern California wine country is a gift—an opportunity to rest, and distance from her painful memories. Most unexpectedly, she finds people who aren’t afraid of her grief or desperate for her to hurry up and move on.
As Ali becomes part of her father’s community, makes new friends of her own, and hears the stories of a generation who survived the Second World War, she begins to find hope again. In a quest to discover the truth about another woman’s lost love, she sets off on a journey across oceans and deep into history. And in making sense of that long-ago tragedy, Ali is able to put together the broken pieces of her heart and make new choices that are right for her.
Read an excerpt.
