I’ve read and loved all of Susan Meissner’s novels so when I saw As Bright As Heaven, her newest book due out in 2018, I knew I had to get my hands on an advance copy. I’m grateful for the sneak peek! Her writing is absolutely lovely and I’m only a few chapters in but I’m hooked.

Her writing is absolutely lovely and I’m only a few chapters in but I’m hooked.

Here’s the synopsis:

In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters–Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa–a chance at a better life.

But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.

How a flu that started in post WWI Europe changed the life and stole the innocence of 3 girls who came to Philadelphia where their parents believed they would be given an opportunity for a better life and education, but it all went terribly wrong when the flu epidemic of 1918 ravaged the city.

This book is an interesting read with fictional characters dealing with a dreadful real life event. My problem with the book is that there is an underlying lack of sophistication that brings to mind something a bit above a YA novel.



So, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this to my more serious readers.

Meissner places her latest novel in 1918 Philadelphia where a mother and her three daughters try to find the American Dream amidst chaos and death. In a world-weary and weak after the Great War, people only wanted to move on and forget the horrors they had experienced, but there would be no rest, no time to grieve. In 1918 the Spanish Flu pandemic swept the globe, leaving millions dead. Pauline wants her daughters, Willa, Evelyn and Maggie to have a better life than she had, but the family faces tremendous odds in a city struck down by disease. I loved this book, I felt like I was right there alongside the sisters as they tried to overcome the tremendous challenges and heartbreak that they faced. A book that will hold readers rapt