Author: Gin Phillips
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Publication Date: December 31, 2012
ISBN-10: 1594486484
ISBN-13: 978-1594486487
Book Description:
When Ren was twelve years old, she lost her older brother to a car accident. For twenty-five years he’s been a presence in her life, appearing with a song or a reflection in the moonlight. Her connection to the ghosts around her has made her especially sensitive as an archaeologist, understanding the bare outline of our ancestors, recreating lives and stories, and breathing life into those who occupied this world long before us. On the cusp of the most important find of her career, it is the ghosts who are guiding her way. But what they have to tell Ren about herself, and her developing relationship with the first man to really know her since her brother’s death, is unexpected—a discovery about the relationship between the past and the future, and the importance of living in the moment.
Idgie Says:
In 2009 I got my hands on Gin's debut novel, The Well and the Mine. I was captivated immediately. Instantly in love with the book and sat eagerly tapping my fingers waiting for more from her. It took until now to have another book fall into my hands.
I won't say I'm disappointed, as the book is not one that disappoints - it just didn't resonate as strongly with me as her first. I suppose I was expecting the same tone and style. She surprised and pulled a Hillary Jordan - her second book being completely different in time, place and subject.
This is a good book, but not a gripping one (to me).
Ren is an archeologist who has the added edge of being able to sense the ghosts of the pasts and put the stories together clearer than staring at broken pottery and guessing what the ancient lives were like. She is also a little dead inside from the death of her brother and has trouble forming long lasting bonds with others.
This is a point in her life when she comes across a great mystery regarding a pottery artist centuries ago, another archeologist who she could find love with if she would open up, and the fact that her ghost brother who has kept her company since he died seems to slowly be slipping away.
I did enjoy how the story went back in time and described the life of the pottery artist and what caused her actions in life - ancient history is always fascinating to me.
If you haven't yet - I highly recommend you read her debut novel also.
Review of The Well and the Mine HERE.