Millicent Glen's Last Wish by Lori Whitaker

At 91 Millicent seems independent, content and happy. She is also harbouring secrets which she has kept close to her chest for decades. She now thinks it is time to come clean and to try and repair the rather tense relationship she has had from the very beginning with her daughter Jane. Her grand daughter Abbie brings delightful news about a pregnancy and Millicent is drawn back into her own turbulent past. Set in two time frames the past of six decades ago and the present with Jane and Abigail the story runs on parallel lines of how the past and hidden secrets do affect the present. It also speaks of maternal love but the problems of miscommunication and passivity and negativity especially brought about by the morals and what is considered right and wrong by society itself. The story of the three women could be right out of your own family or neighbourhood. Grandmothers getting along beautifully with grand children and not with their own children. Some kind of restraint holding them back. The possibility of talking things through helps in this story but it is not easy to open up after decades of closing a door on certain chapters of your life. This was a rather emotional read and not one to be read in a hurry. Sent by Lake Union Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.