Fantastic story! I always love Barbara Claypole White. She has such a gift. She creates amazing stories with characters that are so relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Family isn't always blood and in this title by White she proves it with a story of Marianne, Darius, Jade, and Gabriel. What connects all these *family* members is Marianne. She is the center of their connections and the storm that will make or break them.

Marianne has always been exuberant one minute, somber the next. It's the disease that dictates how she will be, who she will be, what she will do. For years she's been able to keep it contained through the consistent use of meds and therapy. But in an instant something happens that is so eerily similar to an incident from Marianne's past that she just can't. She just can't stay on her meds and make healthy decisions. She needs to free her mind from the prison of meds and then everything will be better - or so she's convinced herself. Pulled into her mind storm is her husband, Darius, her adopted daughter, Jade, and her first love and first best friend, Gabriel. Gabriel and Marianne haven't spoken nor seen each other in 20 years but that doesn't stop Marianne from showing up in his church across the pond. What follows is an unraveling of all that Gabriel had tried to keep together for the past 20 years. Seeing Marianne, interacting with her, has undone all the work he's tried to do to forget Simon, Marianne, and that night so very long ago. Meanwhile Darius and Jade are frantic in trying to locate Marianne and once they do they barge into Gabriel's quiet life to intervene. In the days that follow the four of them will realize they need each other in ways they never thought they did and they will learn that family isn't always blood.

I liked this title by White. She did a rather masterful job at Marianne's character and her disease. Some of the passages with Marianne going off the rails felt so real, I felt exhausted by it - as if it had happened in my presence! She also did a wonderful job of portraying someone with Marianne's disease having a normal and successful life. Marianne was drawn to portray that idea that you don't have to be defined by something like an illness, you can choose how to be defined. This was a strong story with White putting focus on mental health, something most people - even in today's world - shy away from. Well done, Barbara, well done.

Marianne Stokes has a successful music business, a loving husband, and a devoted adopted daughter, but the demons of her manic depression haunt her. After a car accident that stirs up old memories, she dumps her medication and flees back to her hometown-- a small village in England where everyone remembers the "crazy" girl who once attempted suicide in the cemetery.

At once humorous, touching, horrifying, and heartbreaking, this is an ultimately uplifting book about resilience and the power of family in its many forms. All the characters are fully developed, the secrets and backstories are revealed at a pace that keeps the reader interested and engaged. I couldn't wait to see what the next page would reveal. By the end, everything turns out satisfactorily and just as it should. Some would say it's a bit predictable, but I found it very satisfying and enjoyable as well as filled with insights about what it means to live with a mental illness.

Thank you for the chance to review this book, however, unfortunately, I was unable to read and review this title before it was archived.

One of the things that I love about Claypole White's books is that she isn't afraid to go to the depths of mental disorders. In this incredible book, Barbara blends mistakes of the past with triggers, broken people trying to cope the best they can and the twists and perceptions of life that can have long lasting impacts. I LOVE BCW books and am continually amazed at the way she can top her previous writing again and again.

"Echoes of Family" by Barbara Claypole White

Barbara Claypole White is an author that excels at writing novels based on family, or a form of family, where at least one of the members is diagnosed with some form of mental illness. She writes authentically and honestly. Her novels are heartrending and heartwarming. They have flawed, realistic, relatable characters with a storyline written so well, the novel could often be considered a biography or autobiography.

"Echoes of Family," brings together a husband, a wife, a teen the women took in many years ago (prior to her current marriage), and the journey they each take and the issues they each confront, when the wife takes off unexpectedly from North Carolina back to her original home in England. She feels she has issues from her past she needs to address. Issues that have arisen as a result of a recent car accident that have some similarities to one another. They are taking her backward and continue to affect her greatly. Something all are aware of, but not to the degree that is presented later in the novel. The issue with her unexplained travel: she is manic-depressive and, though not needing inpatient care before she left, she is not as stabilized as she has been for the many years prior to the accident.

This is her story, of figuring out how to put her past away, of finding her previous best friend and going through this path with him (something he does not want to do), following her past and trying to put it together in her minds eye, of relapsing, of inpatient care for stabilization, to figuring out what happened truly happened that summer thirty years ago. And in the end, figuring out her priorities, her health, and where her focus should and needs to be once she returns North Carolina and how to put those things into motion.

It is a moving novel from beginning to end. It is a serious and sometimes heavy read, yet is filled with humor and random pieces of insight which lighten the novel. It has a semi-retired shrink with a great outlook on life; a vicar going through his own issues (yes I know priests and other clergy who have these same or similar struggles. They are human, afterall); a husband trying to reconnect with his wife and setting boundaries for the first time in their marriage; and a woman whom, once she finds her answers and provides some information of her own about that fateful night, finally finds peace. She has found her role and path in life, despite living with manic-depressive disorder, and has set her sights on stability and family, however they may come.

Rating: 4.7
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

**On a personal note, as one who has case manages individuals living with serious mental illness, Ms Claypole White, has written a very believable character or two within this novel. She truly got their behaviors written very accurately, and as a reader I felt like I was back in the trenches again. That is a writing style, no matter how much research you do, that is often hard to emulate and she really nailed it. Inward thought process wise and outward behavior and representative wise as well as treatment wise.

Loved this book
Didn't want it to end
Highly recommended

I thought I already reviewed this but it seems I didn't. I also bought it from Amazon.
It was a wonderful book. Told so close to the heart. I was pulled in from the beginning and could not put this book down. I loved it. I honestly loved it. I have recommended it to all my reading friends.
I want to read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an e-Arc of this title in exchange for an honest review. This was such a good book, and I was happy to see that it focused on mental illness. A subject that too many shy away from. The author did a wonderful, authentic job. I loved this book. I highly recommend this title.

This is a compelling book, riveting, and certainly a must read for anyone with any interest in understanding the demons of mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder. I've been surrounded by the mental illness of family and neighbors my entire not so short life. But for the downplay of the demon Narcissus, Ms. White has done a fabulous job in shining a light on the oft misunderstood and the difficulties inherent with treating what is not visible. Had she truly exposed the fallout, the book would be devastating, as mental illness all too often is. Instead, she wisely opted to reveal the reality that hope is realistic and matters.

This is a coming of age tale of one child and several adults who inhabit Sycamore Glenn. It is a good story, one that will take you away from daily cares right into the lives so intertwined through the generations. A good read!