“She said it’s not how short or long an experience is, it’s the depth to which it touches the core of who you are that matters.”

Pauline and Tom are parents to three girls; Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa. Life in Pennsylvania in 1918 has its challenges! It’s a time of horrific war and the Spanish flu is killing off thousands! Moving in with Tom’s cousin and helping to run the family mortuary business gives the whole family a feeling of belonging and purpose. But before long, the flu ravages the community and makes its way into their home.
Meanwhile, love is in the air, war is imminent, sickness forced schools to close and families to retreat into survival mode. In an act of kindness, Pauline and Maggie make their way across town delivering soup and love to those who are sick. Much by accident, Maggie discovers something and somebody that will forever change her life and the lives of her sisters. Maggie will stop at nothing to protect those she loves!
Susan Meissner’s writing is pure and beautiful. Her character development and writing style will hook you right away. She makes you feel like you are transported back in time and living along side this family. You will cry with them and laugh with them. You will want what they want and feel what they feel. “As Bright as Heaven” was refreshing and beautiful. Highly recommend!!!!

3.5 stars

First line:Morning light shimmers on the apricot horizon as I stand at the place where my baby boy rests.

Summary:The Bright women tell their story, alternating chapters (Pauline, Evelyn, Maggie and Willa) beginning in 1918. The Bright family lives in Quakerton, but moves to Philadelphia after baby Henry dies. Thomas goes to work with his Uncle Fred in the Bright funeral home. The story covers the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, some of World War I and moves into the mid-1920s.

Highlights:The section of the book that describes what it was like to be in a large city (and especially living in a funeral home) during the Spanish flu epidemic was compelling and rich. In fact, that section made the book mostly worth reading. The female characters were pretty well drawn and had some depth. The story line moved along at a nice pace.

Lowlights (or what could have been better):I felt like the male characters lacked some depth, but maybe they were just meant to be secondary to the story. That said, I still would have liked them to be more well developed. The storyline was predictable. I could see what was going to happen 150 pages before it did. AQlso, when the book starts, Willa is 7 years old, but the sections that are told from her first-person point of view don’t sound like a 7-year-old to me. I think that many people may be able to look beyond these criticisms (judging by the number of 5-star reviews I’ve seen), so maybe this book simply wasn’t for me.

FYI:Nothing to be aware of in this one.

In 1918 the Bright family leaves a tobacco farm in Quakertown, PA to move to center city Philadelphia. The father is to work for his uncle's funeral parlor, which he would then inherit. They have suffered the devastating--but at that time all too common loss--of a baby. Their grief travels with them into their new life.

In the autumn of 1918 the Spanish Influenza hits Philadelphia, leaving over 12,000 dead in its wake. The mortuary fills and the uncle dies. When a daughter falls ill, the mother keeps her alive but, worn down, succumbs and dies of the disease. Friends die, and a beloved neighbor leaves for the trenches of France. Amidst all this loss, one of the daughters rescues an infant in distress in a house full of the dead, and the child becomes the family's heart and reason to go on.

The women, the mother and her four daughters, speak in alternating chapters, their unique personalities and perspectives revealed through their own words. Philadelphia has a distinct presence, although fictionalized and geographically ambiguous at times. (The cover photo shows Logan Circle with City Hall in the background.) The time period, between 1918 and 1926, covers the flu and the war but also prohibition and the rise of the speakeasy.

The story is about people who suffer great loss and live through horrible times, who carry their ghosts and demons with them, until they are able to see that life goes on and somehow the world can be bright again. 

My Goodreads friends have rated this a four or five star book and found it very engaging. So I will safely say that readers of historical fiction and woman's fiction will enjoy Meissner's book. 

SPOILER ALERTS

I had several issues with the writing.

I lacked emotional connection to the characters. It could be the multitude of voices, but I think it was because the story is too much told and not enough shown. For instance, one daughter develops a crush on an older man who goes to war. He is gone for the bulk of the novel, and returns at age thirty-eight and the girl is still "in love." There is not enough interaction between them to make me believe she is "in love" with him for life. It seems contrived.

I found the book preachy and full of clichéd lessons. The ex-soldier, once returned home, consoles his now grown-up lover that the war was horrible and he had to heal. All this healing happened off camera and lacks emotional impact; he is just telling her a lesson he learned. Make peace with the past, he advises. Later, the foundling brother's family is discovered to be alive. The father forgives the Brights, saying that he was angry for a long time by his losses and is finally seeing there is good in life, ending with the old chestnut of 'we are all doing the best we can with what we have'. Nothing new here, kids.

And the story wrapped up with far too many predictable and implausible outcomes. I won't even go into them. There is talk of fate and destiny and finding patterns.

END OF SPOILER ALERT

Consequently, although I had looked forward to reading As Bright As Heaven, especially for its setting and the time period, I found the book an average read. For those who are not familiar with the Spanish Influenza, who like feel-good endings, and who want the horror of history softened by wish fulfillment romantic endings, this is the book for you. It was not my cup of tea.

Susan Meissner’s writing is pure and beautiful. Her character development and writing style will hook you right away. She makes you feel like you are transported back in time and living along side this family. You will cry with them and laugh with them. You will want what they want and feel what they feel. “As Bright as Heaven” was refreshing and beautiful. Highly recommend!!!!

A thoroughly engrossing story of the Bright family and the tragedies of losing a child, WWI, and the Spanish Flu epidemic. I loved the three daughters, Evie, Maggie,and Willa. All had unique personalities and the story highlighted their strengths and weaknesses and at the same gave us insight into their family. It's wonderful when a book can transport you to another era and you lose yourself. I truly forgot it was 2017 at times. I felt like I was there in Philadelphia taken over by the horrific epidemic. a sort of silent observer. I even enjoyed the special peek at the workings of the funeral parlor where Mr. Bright works along side his uncle. A perfect read for any lover of historical fiction. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Bookish First for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

From a small town in Pennsylvania as a family rolling tobacco leaves for a living to Philadelphia as a family living and working in a funeral home.

The Brights made a big change from their quiet life in Quakertown to the noisy, big city of Philadelphia. Both the city and the job Thomas Bright had were quite different from what they were used to.

The girls had to leave their friends and make new ones, but most folks weren't interested in being friends with a funeral director's daughter. Pauline Bright was always solemn and quiet since the death of her infant son, but she seemed a bit better but different in Philadelphia.

Along with the change in their lives comes Thomas going off to war and then the Spanish flu arriving full force and killing thousands.

AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN has the reader following and becoming immersed in the lives of the Bright family. They were a sweet, unassuming family that you will want to be a part of and to get to know better.

The reader will also learn about The Spanish Flu and its devastation of the population around the world. If you are like me, you will do research of your own about the Spanish Flu.

Ms. Meissner has written another touching book that teaches us some history as well as teaches us about the goodness of mankind and its generosity in times of a crisis.

Another marvelous, heartfelt read by Ms. Meissner you won't want to miss. You will fall in love with the characters and won't want the book to end.

AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN has a beautiful story line, beautiful research, and beautiful characters.

You will also need a few tissues. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher, NetGalley, and BookishFirst. I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." -Ferdinand Foch

My love for historical fiction continues to grow and As Bright ad Heaven has nurtured my soul! What an amazing story! This is a story about love and family. About choices, consequences and the amazing resilience of the human spirit.

Set in 1918 Philadelphia during the Great War and The Spanish Flu pandemic which is believed to have claimed the lives of about 50 million people, worldwide. In Philadelphia, 13,000 lives were lost in the span of two months!

After the death of her infant son, Henry, who was born with a heart defect, Pauline and Thomas Bright make a decision to move from the small town of Quakertown Pennsylvania to Philadelphia in hopes of giving their three daughters a better life.

They arrive in Philadelphia with their daughters; Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa. The family moves into Thomas’ Uncle Fred’s home and begin anew. Soon they are faced with challenges that are greater than anyone has ever margined. Lives are changed in the chaos that was The Great War and the Flu pandemic. Choices will be made with great, life changing consequences.

One of my favorite things in a book is to read the story though the eyes of each of the characters. The story is told in four different points of view which makes it that much easier to fall in love with each one of them. It contains a set of unforgettable characters with lives that change as the story progresses. They each grow, or are forced to grow in a world where hope seems to have been lost and replaced by despair and anguish.

Life is made up of choices and each choice we make comes with a consequence, a cause and effect, if you will. Sometimes the consequences are revealed to us right away, while others might take longer, much longer to appear. Sometimes an entire lifetime. Some choices are small, like weather to have tea instead of coffee, buy a red car instead of the white. Some are life changing and this story is the perfect example of how life works in mysterious ways.

If you enjoy historical fiction as much as I do, you will most definitely enjoy this one. It will have you in tears from start to finish and leave you with a wonderful and earm feeling in your heart.

The Bright family move from the farm to Philadelphia, where Thomas, the husband, is to become an undertaker. The book alternates between Pauline, the mother, and their daughters, Evelyn, Maggie and Willa. With an outbreak of Spanish flu, their new life is suddenly transformed beyond all belief. When Maggie and Pauline visit the sick to hand out food, Maggie finds a baby and a dying girl in one of the houses. Taking the baby, Maggie pretends that he was alone and that she can't remember where he was found.

This was a well written and engaging book. Each point of view was interesting and added to the story. Well paced, the book spanned multiple years, showing how the flu epidemic changed and shaped their lives. I love historical fiction and this is one of the better ones that I've read. Overall, highly recommended.

What a wonderful story! Through good times and bad, the Bright family perseveres.
After the death of their infant son, Thomas and Pauline Bright, with their three girls, move to Philadelphia for Thomas to work in his uncle's funeral home. All too soon, the country is engulfed in the Great War and the devastating Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
The story is told from the various viewpoints of Pauline and her three daughters, but the novel really belongs to Maggie, the middle daughter.
Although perhaps wrapping up a little too neatly, this was a great read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is my first book by Susan Meissner, and I was impressed! I will be reading more of her work.

I’m not much into otherworldly science fiction, but science fiction that mimics real life fascinates me. The Spanish flu has always intrigued me. To begin with, my first Michael Crichton book, The Adromeda Strain, terrified me as a teenager. A pandemic like the Spanish flu is no less terrifying, and sounds like science fiction. A teeny-tiny virus that could infect and sicken 500 million people worldwide and claim the lives of 20 to 50 million people is just mind-boggling. Years later, I read a book chronicling the Spanish flu and learned more about it. My father was born in the spring of 1918, which was the beginning of the Spanish flu in the US. Fort Dix, where Spanish flu was first diagnosed in New Jersey, is about 50 miles from our hometown. It started me wondering how my grandparents and their children were able to escape this. How did they cope? How would I cope if I were in their shoes? And lastly, I’m a bit of germophobe! Take, for instance, my last grocery shopping trip. I used the wipes to thoroughly disinfect the entire shopping cart (not just the handles), held my breath in the store when someone nearby coughed or sneezed, and tried not to touch anything unless I put it in my cart. Oh, and I just use my fingertips, as if that helps!

So, back to the book. The backdrop for As Bright as Heaven is Spanish flu. The story begins with the Bright family in the countryside of Pennsylvania. Thomas and Pauline have three daughters, and have just buried their infant son. They receive an opportunity to move to Philadelphia, and a chance to better their family’s lives. However, months later the Spanish flu hits, and their worlds are changed.

The book is narrated by Pauline and each of their three daughters. Each chronicles their lives through the Spanish flu pandemic and the aftermath, dealing with tragedies and loss while trying to find happiness. Each of the three women has a different voice, a different perspective, and a different coping mechanism. The characters are complex and fully developed, the writing is skillful and flows from one chapter/narrator to the next, and the storyline will engage you. While this is certainly a story of tragedy and loss, it also shows how the human spirit will shine as bright as heaven when faced with adversity. The ending is happy, but true to the characters, there is a unique twist to each person’s happiness. All around, this was a great historical fiction read.

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Ahh Susan Meissner, you've done it again! One of my automatic buy authors returns with a fabulous historical fiction novel set amidst the Spanish flu pandemic of 2018-2019. We follow the Bright family as they navigate their new city of Philadelphia, where the patriarch has taken a job with his uncle, owner of a funeral parlor. This was back in the beginning of the shift from caring for the deceased at home vs. having them embalmed and viewed at a funeral home. Fascinating as this topic was unto itself, there is also the widespread panic and loss of lives from the flu, where no one is spared no matter what socioeconomic class you were from. I loved the Bright family, and along with getting to know them, we are treated to topics such as first love, men being called up to serve in the war, fostering an orphan child, speakeasys, mental health asylums, and the ever present tragedies of death. Ms. Meissner writes in her usual masterful style, and her characters and places leap off the page. Despite a small hitch with a too coincidental part of the plot, there was nothing else I would want from this book.

A definite read, especially for those looking for some historical perspective to the greatest pandemic (greater than the Bubonic plague for loss of life), which occurred a century ago. Another wonderfully written story of a family you will want to get to know.

I had previously read “A Bridge Across The Ocean” by Ms. Meissner and I was anxious to read this new novel. Wow, it is one of the best books that I have read this year!!! The prose is beautiful and flowing and amongst all of the heartache and physical and emotional difficulties the human spirit shines brightly!

The setting is Philadelphia around 1917 and on. The Bright family, husband Thomas, wife Pauline and their three daughters have just moved to Philadelphia from a poor tobacco town to join Tom’s uncle’s funeral business. The Bright’s have recently lost their young infant son and have decided that a move would be a positive thing for them, a new environment, better education for their girls, a solid well paying job for Tom with the knowledge that he will someday inherit the funeral business from his childless uncle.

The novel is so multi-layered that it’s difficult to do it justice in a review. It is told from multiple perspectives of family members. The war begins to really rage in Europe and soon even Tom, in his 40’s, is called to serve. Not long after their father leaves the Spanish flu begins to spread it’s ugly tentacles across the US, having started in Europe. Many soldiers have died while in service and they also return to the US forts and hospitals and the flu spreads like a wildfire. I didn’t know much about this terrible time but Ms. Meissner has done extensive research and there is a wealth of knowledge here. She helps us see the extent of the human suffering, the victims falling to the disease so quickly, the undertakers and gravediggers can’t work fast enough or provide enough caskets for the dead. In the end it’s told that around 10,000 people in Philadelphia alone died from the flu.

It’s at this time that Pauline and her daughter Maggie volunteer to take food to the sick and Maggie hears the cry of a baby, enters his home and finds his dead mother and what she believes to be his dying sister. She bundles the filthy, untended baby in her coat and returns to her mother. They take in the child and raise it as their own having provided all of the information that they know to the police and other authorities.

The family experiences the horror of the flu as their mother, Pauline, dies. Through the years, as their father returns from the war to care for the children and eventually run the funeral home they experience happiness again.

There are so many interesting stories of the girls, their interests, loves and losses that are all well developed and I felt as though I knew each of the girls. This book made me realize that the flu in the end claimed almost one third of the population in the world, more than all of the soldiers that died in the World Wars. It’s hard to even imagine a devastating disease such as this ever happening again, but there is always that chance that science may not be able to keep up with the ever changing viruses.

I would recommend this book to everyone, there is so much to like about this book. The interesting plot with well researched facts, the well rounded characters believable and incredible and the writing flows like a river. Buy this book, read it and pass it on, it’s that good.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, thank you.

Will also post to Amazon upon publication.

An average farm family moves to Philadelphia during 1918 to help run an uncle's funeral business. This move is a huge cultural change for the parents as well as their three daughters, but little do they know how much change they and their newly adopted city will endure. The topic of the Spanish Flu during this timeframe, 1917-18, has been almost ignored with little written about such a devastating worldwide event that killed 50 million people. We don't know why this is, but the disease was indiscriminate to those it affected: poor and wealthy, young and old, male and female. Philadelphia alone had a death toll of 12,000 people.
Our farm family adapts to city life, Papa learns the new trade of preparing the dead for viewing and buried. Embalming was a fairly new process. Mama learned to apply makeup and fix the hair, which she felt proud to do. The three girls went to a private school and flourished but each in their own ways. This is a remarkable tale of how this one family deals with tragedy when it comes to them and their neighbors. To people all over their city. Susan Meissner said this when asked about this book, "I wanted to show the resiliency of the human spirit despite incredibly difficult circumstances." She has succeeded. Please read this book; it must be read. Thank you.

A family is unmoored by the loss of a newborn so they decide to move to the big city and help an elderly uncle with his mortuary business. Living above the mortuary sounds grisly but they quickly adjust just in time for the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic. With war on the horizon the family and neighbors lose more loved ones in Europe and to the flu at home. Soon loss seems like a part of daily life just as they must all pitch in to help run the overcrowded mortuary. Emotional heart-gripping story of a family dealing with grief by helping others deal with it gently. You will easily bond with these courageous women and the lives they touch. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Beautifully written, heartbreaking story of four females in Philadelphia in 1918 during the Spanish Flu. I loved this book, as I have other books by Susan Meissner and would highly recommend to anyone who loves historical fiction.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the free review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

From the first page, I was drawn into this novel because of the immense amount of detail used. Meissner wonderfully showed the scenes and made it so easy to relate to the characters. I felt like I was in the Bright family while reading this novel, which always means the author did a fantastic job with it.

During this novel, I could feel the emotions of the characters. I was experiencing their pain, joy, trauma, and love right along with them. I like how each main woman in this novel gets their own chapters. It made it so they all could be complexly developed that led to wanting to read more about each of the women. I was engrossed in each story and found that by highlighting each woman that their issues were able to be explored more deeply.

This novel doesn’t come out until February 6, but now is a great time to go ahead and pre-order it. It will be a perfect late winter read.

Love Susan Meissner stories. She is an excellent historical fiction writer. Can't wait for the next one!

Susan Meissner has a way of pulling me right into a book and making it hard to put it down. The story is beautifully told, a story of loss, but also one of hope. I have to admit I didn't know much about the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918, I had no idea how devastating this Pandemic was world wide. The Bright family, moves from Quakerstown, Pennsylvania to the big city of Philadelphia. The story is told by four different members of the Bright family, from the mother to the youngest child. The Bright family moves to Philadelphia to help run a family based undertaker business. I got caught up in each of the characters, I loved this book!

Review My Review of “As Bright As Heaven” by Susan Meissner

I love the vivid descriptions of the setting and the characters in “As Bright As Heaven” by Susan Meissner. The genres for this story are Historical Fiction and Fiction. The story setting for this story is mostly in Philadelphia, and some other areas as described in the story. The timeline of the story is around 1918, when there is the Spanish flu epidemic and carries through the Great War, World War One, and after.

The characters are described as complex complicated and confused, mostly dictated by the devastating times. The Bright family moves to Philadelphia to hope for a better life, where the husband will be working in his Uncle’s Funeral Home. Pauline Bright has lost her baby son, so this move for her family looks like it could be positive. Despite the fact that men are headed to fight in The Great War, the possiblility of the new move for Pauline, her husband and three daughters seems like a wonderful chance and new beginnings.

The Spanish flu epidemic has grasped hold of much of the country and soon schools and public places are closed. There are many deaths. The funeral home doesn’t have space for all the deceased bodies. Moving to Philadelphia, where the population is greater, and there are so many sick people may not have been such a great choice.

Pauline volunteers to go to the poorer part of town to deliver food and materials to sick people. Her daughter accompanies her. While Pauline goes to one of the apartments, Maggie hears the cries of a young baby. She sees that the mother is dead, and brings the baby to her mother Who will care for the little boy?

Despite the heartbreaks and challenges, the family looks at the choices they have to make. Are there really all good choices, or all bad choices?

I appreciate the historical research that Susan Meissner has done for this time period. The Spanish Flu doesn’t discriminate between the rich and poor, or the young or old. I also love that the author discusses the importance of family, friends, good neighbors, loyalty, courage, kindness, being helpful, love, hope and faith. I would highly recommend this book for readers of Historical Fiction. I received an Advanced Reading Copy for my honest review.
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Set in Philadelphia, during and after the the Spanish Flu epidemic, this is the story of a mother , her daughters and an orphaned infant. It is a heartbreaking and poignant story, told through the voices of the children. I could not put this down.