Mystery. Intrigue. Suspense. Twists and turns. Family drama. This book has it all. I was immediately drawn in and read late into the night. Thanks #NetGalley

Rosie is shocked at her mother's funeral when a neighbor tells her she is not her mother's daughter. She can't find any documentation to prove who she is. Friends suggest she take a DNA test to see if any relatives are registered on ancestry pages. A cousin is found in Canada and he invites her to visit. There she finds intrigue and mystery surrounding her birth. A good story of family and history. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A whispered comment at her mother’s funeral and Rosie Ashford’s life, as she knew it, fell apart. She was not her mother’s biological daughter. What was worse, there was no official documentation that she ever existed. At the point of total breakdown, Rosie was persuaded to seek a DNA match. Should one be found, Rosie would learn some measure of who she was and where she may have come from.
That she received confirmation of a match for a first cousin, who lived overseas, surprised her, as it did him. Intrigued he invited Rosie to visit. To do so, she would have to travel almost three thousand miles to Nova Scotia, on Canada’s eastern coast, in the depths of winter, to a place she had never heard of.
Within hours of her arrival Rosie was convinced she had lived there before, even to the point of considering that she may be living a past life. Moreover she was soon embroiled in an historically divided family, who still lived with the consequences of decisions made by generations, long gone, and who used Rosie’s presence for their own purposes, putting her existence in danger. This book is brilliant, really well written, good story which kept me interested from the beginning. Great characters which are also believable.

This was kind of a sad story, but I did like it. If you like stories about your world being turned upside down, but struggling through, then this is for you.

This was an interesting thriller. At the funeral of her mother, a woman whispers to Rosie Ashford and her life fell apart. This woman whispered that she was not her mother's biological daughter. She had distant memories of another young girl that lived with them when she was young but then the girl went away.
There was no documentation to tell Rosie who she really was. They did not live in that town when she was young so there was no one to tell her who she was. She decided to seek a DNA match and found that she had a match for a first cousin from overseas in Canada. She traveled there to try to discover who she was. After arriving in Nova Scotia, she was convinced that she had lived there. Her arrival stirred up old issues in the divided family. This was an interesting book about family secrets that were uncovered as a result of her search. I recommend it.

I struggled with getting interested in this book due to both a poor storyline and lack of character development

After her mother dies, a young woman finds out that she is not related to her, Through a DNA search, she locates a distant cousin in Nova Scotia. As she meets her new family, hidden secrets emerge and all is not what it seems. I finished this book but lost interest halfway thru. I will not be recommending.

Sand Dollars by Margaret Coates. Booksgosocial, 2021

When Rosie follows up on a remark made at her mother’s funeral to find no biological relationship, her search for family takes her across the Atlantic to a coastal hamlet.

Rosie looks very much like a woman in an 1800s photo, hints suggesting past life experiences and Rosie’s earliest memories allowed me to guess at the plot, but I was wrong. The facts emerge slowly in this simply written but engaging story with many secrets, and for most of the story, no one character that knows everything.

Rosie’s character was appealing and well developed; other characters less so and there were quite a few of them; for most, their reason for being became apparent by the end. Not every loose end was tied up though, there was potential for romance and a related somewhat disturbing decision.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Sand Dollars for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. #SandDollars #NetGalley