Seeking Glory

Thank you to Net Galley and Outskirts Press for the chance to read and review this book. The opinions expressed are my own. Kate receives a phone call about her daughter Ally, whom she has not seen for ten years. Ally is in the hospital, and unfortunately she dies. Kate is left with her granddaughter, Glory, who does not speak. So begins Kate's quest to find out what her daughter has been doing the last ten years and why didn't she come home or contact her family. I loved this story-it was very well written and hooked me right from the beginning. I highly recommend this book! You are in for a treat!.

My sincere thanks to Outskirts Press, NetGalley and Patricia Hamilton Shook for the chance to read and review Seeking Glory. In this time of Pandemic house arrest, it was wonderful to have and enjoy a book as interesting and fast-paced as Seeking Glory. I simply devoured it.

Glory is a four year old whose mother, Ally, has died of sepsis. She is unable or unwilling to speak when she is placed with her grandmother, Kate. Kate, the owner of a gallery and shop on Cape Cod, had been summoned to a San Francisco Hospital by a social worker to take custody of Glory.

Kate brings the child back with her to the Cape and integrates her into her life there. She seeks out psychological help for the silent Glory.

It is clear that the author knows her stuff. When Kate takes her to a therapist she uses puppet play with the mute child to determine what has caused her unwillingness to talk, a usual method in such cases.

Perhaps less authentic is the depiction of Glory less as a severely traumatized child than an unbelievably easy and well-behaved one. Be that as it may, the reader can relate to both Kate and Glory. In Kate's quest to find the backstory of Ally's fate and Glory's trauma, she successfully plays detective to get answers.

Very gripping and readable, Seeking Glory is worth reading even when you are not quarantined. My sincere thanks to Outskirts Press, NetGalley and Patricia Hamilton Shook for the chance to read and review Seeking Glory. In this time of Pandemic house arrest, it was wonderful to have and enjoy a book as interesting and fast-paced as Seeking Glory. I simply devoured it.

Glory is a four year old whose mother, Ally, has died of sepsis. She is unable or unwilling to speak when she is placed with her grandmother, Kate. Kate, the owner of a gallery and shop on Cape Cod, had been summoned to a San Francisco Hospital by a social worker to take custody of Glory.

Kate brings the child back with her to the Cape and integrates her into her life there. She seeks out psychological help for the silent Glory.

It is clear that the author knows her stuff. When Kate takes her to a therapist she uses puppet play with the mute child to determine what has caused her unwillingness to talk, a usual method in such cases.

Perhaps less authentic is the depiction of Glory less as a severely traumatized child than an unbelievably easy and well-behaved one. Be that as it may, the reader can relate to both Kate and Glory. In Kate's quest to find the backstory of Ally's fate and Glory's trauma, she successfully plays detective to get answers.

Very gripping and readable, Seeking Glory is worth reading even when you are not quarantined. My sincere thanks to Outskirts Press, NetGalley and Patricia Hamilton Shook for the chance to read and review Seeking Glory. In this time of Pandemic house arrest, it was wonderful to have and enjoy a book as interesting and fast-paced as Seeking Glory. I simply devoured it.

Glory is a four year old whose mother, Ally, has died of sepsis. She is unable or unwilling to speak when she is placed with her grandmother, Kate. Kate, the owner of a gallery and shop on Cape Cod, had been summoned to a San Francisco Hospital by a social worker to take custody of Glory.

Kate brings the child back with her to the Cape and integrates her into her life there. She seeks out psychological help for the silent Glory.

It is clear that the author knows her stuff. When Kate takes her to a therapist she uses puppet play with the mute child to determine what has caused her unwillingness to talk, a usual method in such cases.

Perhaps less authentic is the depiction of Glory less as a severely traumatized child than an unbelievably easy and well-behaved one. Be that as it may, the reader can relate to both Kate and Glory. In Kate's quest to find the backstory of Ally's fate and Glory's trauma, she successfully plays detective to get answers.

Very gripping and readable, Seeking Glory is worth reading even when you are not quarantined. My sincere thanks to Outskirts Press, NetGalley and Patricia Hamilton Shook for the chance to read and review Seeking Glory. In this time of Pandemic house arrest, it was wonderful to have and enjoy a book as interesting and fast-paced as Seeking Glory. I simply devoured it.

Glory is a four year old whose mother, Ally, has died of sepsis. She is unable or unwilling to speak when she is placed with her grandmother, Kate. Kate, the owner of a gallery and shop on Cape Cod, had been summoned to a San Francisco Hospital by a social worker to take custody of Glory.

Kate brings the child back with her to the Cape and integrates her into her life there. She seeks out psychological help for the silent Glory.

It is clear that the author knows her stuff. When Kate takes her to a therapist she uses puppet play with the mute child to determine what has caused her unwillingness to talk, a usual method in such cases.

Perhaps less authentic is the depiction of Glory less as a severely traumatized child than an unbelievably easy and well-behaved one. Be that as it may, the reader can relate to both Kate and Glory. In Kate's quest to find the backstory of Ally's fate and Glory's trauma, she successfully plays detective to get answers.

Very gripping and readable, Seeking Glory is worth reading even when you are not quarantined.

Haunting Story, Fantastic Ending
This is a great story. It could be called women's fiction. The plot is haunting in a heartache sort of way. I could put myself in the position of so many of the characters in the story. I am still spinning from the surprise ending. There are so many places in the book that I just wanted to cry. It would make a great movie. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

When Kate receives a call from a hospital  on the other side of the country that her estranged daughter has been admitted and is asking for her, she drops everything and immediately flies out to San Francisco.  There's no denying that she hopes to finally heal the rift between them.

Unfortunately, Kate arrives at her daughter's bedside just moments before she dies, her last word "Glory".

With the irrevocable loss of her daughter, Kate finds a troubled granddaughter.  Picking up the meagre pieces of the life Glory and her mother shared, Kate is faced with more questions than than answers.  But the indisputable truth is that perhaps Kate needs Glory as much as or maybe more than, Glory needs her grandmother.

Interestingly, the picture Shook paints of Kate isn't one that's sympathetic to me.  Much as I'm usually predisposed to like the main character in a novel, liking Kate didn't come automatically.  She doesn't quite trust her best friend and business partner to run their shop well without her.  Twenty years later, she still has no real friends in the town she moved herself and Ally to in her bid to start fresh after a divorce. 

But, faced with the death of her estranged only daughter, and finding herself with a four year old granddaughter, Kate is determined to find out where Ally was and what happened to her in the ten years between leaving her home in anger, and Kate finding herself with a troubled four year old who needs her now.

Shook's story is engrossing.  As Kate sets out to find the truth, she is determined to help her granddaughter.  It is perhaps a chance to redeem herself for what she sees as her failure with her own daughter.

I spent the day in company of this book.  I simply could not stop reading till I too knew Ally's story and that Glory would be safe.  I found the ending a bit open though.  There are many unanswered questions still, though the bigger mystery is resolved.  I'm not sure I'm happy with the way the story simply stopped.  I'm hoping there will be a sequel. 

[Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read an Advance Reader Copy of this book.  The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.]