By Mindy Starns Clark
& John Campbell Clark
Published by Harvest House Publishers
ISBN#978-0-7369-2946-2
385 Pages
Now facing a hostile takeover, the firm’s origins are challenged when new facts emerge about Adele’s actions on the night Titanic sank. Kelsey tries to defend the company and the great-grandmother she has long admired, but the stakes are raised when Kelsey’s boss is murdered and her own life threatened. Forced to seek help from Cole Thornton, a man Kelsey once loved—and lost, thanks to her success-at-all-costs mentality—she pursues mysteries both past and present. Aided by Cole and strengthened by the faith she’d all but forgotten in her climb up the corporate ladder, Kelsey races the clock to defend her family legacy, her livelihood, and ultimately her life.
Review:
I’ve never read a book by Mindy Starns Clark before
and was thankful to receive a review copy of such a haunting, compelling, dramatic
suspense novel. I liked the style in which the novel was written using two
story lines; one from the present and one from the past. It was amazing how the
two intertwined. This author’s husband
John Campbell Clark is a lifelong Titanic buff so the setting for this story is
fascinating and it addresses the fact that this is the 100th Anniversary
year of the disaster.
It became so clear to me how a family’s heritage was very
important from generation to generation. What I do today can and will affect my
children, and their children’s children. The book opens up with Kelsey Tate giving
a talk about her great-grandmother Adele at an event her families company
hosted to commemorate the disaster. Adele was a Titanic survivor and founder of
Brennan &Tate (over 100 years ago)
Gloria, Kelsey’s mentor is acting funny and leaves Kelsey to
speak at this event alone. She tells Kelsey it’s her time to shine. She didn’t
want to overshadow the young lady’s day. Everything they’d been doing lead up
to this point. She knew Kelsey would make Adele proud.
Kelsey had always wanted to grow up to be like Adel, “who
had found a way to have a successful career and a happy family and have a full
life…Kelsey realized she had grown up to be just like Gloria, who was an empty
workaholic who channeled all of her emotions and her energies onto her career,
pursuing success at all costs. Kelsey had turned her back on God. She had
nothing in life, nothing to live for.”
Then the author switches to the POV to Adel on the Titanic
making plans to work at her father’s company when she arrived in American. Her
role model was Margaret Brown who tells her, “If you want to invest, honey,
look to the people and places the big boys are ignoring – women’s interests,
for example, show me a woman with a good idea and a strong work ethic, I’ll
show you somebody who can succeed like the dickens if she’s given a proper
chance.”
“It is one thing to try to break down those barriers that
stand in my way, Adele thought, and quite another, to help other women get
started out as well, how fulfilling that would be.” Adele was a business minded
woman in a time when that wasn’t fashionable.
In tracking down leads about her families past Kelsey
questions her Grandpa Jonah. He reminds her, “The secret to a happy life is in
the hanging on and in the letting go…., “Let go of your hurts, your grudges,
and any possessions that aren’t a necessity. Hang on to your memories’, your
loved ones, and most of all your faith. Do that, Little Bit, and your life will
be more rewarding than you could ever imagine.”
“When did your heart check out of the equation entirely and
turn you into this automation? This shell? (Kelsey’s mother asked her) ….I love
you, honey, but I do not know you. What could possibly have happened in your
life to bring you to this?”
Good question. Mom just didn’t understand business. Kelsey was trying to survive on her sinking
ship, the family business. The scandal
inside Brennan & Tate, rumors that were making the value of their stock
plummet and recent disturbing discoveries about her families past made Kelsey
think about her ex-boyfriend Cole, who left her and the company, after a deal
went bad, “…looking back now, it struck Kelsey that it wasn’t just her under
cutting of a deal that had ended their relationship. It had been her stubborn
pride and her unwillingness even to consider that she’d been wrong to do what
she did. Her refusal to apologize or even feel bad about it…Kelsey finally
realized something. It was the after math of the event, far more than the event
itself that had driven Cole away five years ago.”
Brennan & Tate was in the middle of a hostel take-over
and the police wouldn’t say if her friend was murdered or committed suicide.
Kelsey’s world was crashing in on her. Who could she turn to? Who could she
trust? Kelsey was racing against time. Adele’s time on the Titanic was reaching
the end of its existence. Time was running out for both ladies. Adele had
secrets that Kelsey needed to know. Could she find the clues from the past in
time to save the company?
Love this novel. I couldn’t put it down. I was so wrapped up
with the characters and their pain and disappoint from both generations. I loved
the style in which this author wrote this narrative just when I thought I had
it all figured out then Kelsey would discover something new and it changed the
way I thought the ending must be. It also changed the way I viewed the
characters in the story. I was also on pins and needles for Adele as she was in
the middle of a business deal herself that was turning out to be something
unexpected. This book is filled with so much from the past and excitement in
the future. I’ll definitely be reading more of these authors’ books. I highly
recommend this book for reading and for a book club selection.
Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent
The Book Club Network
Bonus Review:
Very readable, this novel has mystery, history and
relationships. I finished it while on vacation and gave It to my
daughter-in-law who devoured it in days and liked it as much as I did.
Bonus Review:
A fascinating story set in two worlds. Two women,
cousins and best friends, cross to a new adventure in America on the
state-of-the-art Titanic. As their adventure unfolds the story is tinged
with the knowledge that one of the women does
not survive the fateful voyage. Through snippets of each of the
cousins’ points of view the reader sees their relationship and
experiences a bit of the magic that was the Titanic. Interspersed is the
modern, intriguing story of the great-granddaughter of the
woman who survived that fated voyage. But now, there is a question, and
the life of Kelsey is turned upside down as she tries to answer the
charges and save the company started by her great grandmother.
Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer
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