White Picket Fences (Review & Giveaway)

Do you ever look at the life of someone else and think, "Wow, they have it all together! Their house is beautiful, they are healthy, they have adorable and well-behaved children. Life for them is so easy!" You know you do! I do. But we also know appearances are deceiving. It is like seeing two pixels of an entire computer screen, or even better, do you know those pictures that are made up of thousands of other smaller pictures? It is like looking at one tiny panel of one of those.

Susan Meissner's White Picket Fences is about a family that appears to have it all. Wonderful careers, great kids, and a perfect life. Amanda Janvier agrees to have her niece, Tally, stay with the family when her father disappears. Tally and Amanda's teenage son, Chase, work together on a school project about the Holocaust. Chase becomes troubled. This project unlocks secrets that have been carefully hidden in his family. But secrets always have a way of coming to the surface. Can this family survive the turmoil and stick together?

Meissner's characters are very developed and believable. About halfway through the book I couldn't put it down. I tend to avoid Holocaust books, because of the heavy subject matter. This book deals with it thoughtfully and tastefully. Facades and secrecy aren't glorified. The importance of relationships and communication come through. A very interesting read!

Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.

Buy it here.

This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Press.

Interested in your own copy? Leave a comment by Friday, November 20 on this post (or on facebook post) and I'll give one away!