Heather Bell Adams

I just finished reading an early digital copy of Heather Bell Adams second book, THE GOOD LUCK STONE. The main character, Audrey Thorpe, is a wealthy widower with many secrets she's been harboring for over seventy years. Well respected as a philanthropist, she has moved on from those secrets, until an old friend sends her a message.

Told skillfully via a duel timeline, modern day Savannah, and WWII, Audrey Thorpe appears to have lived a life of comfort and ease. Not many know, not even her social status driven granddaughter, Deanna, that she spent several years as a nurse in the South Pacific. They don't know the decisions she's had to make. The sacrifices.

I found the story settings in each timeline filled with rich details. The modern day backdrop of Savannah came to life as did the South Pacific locations of Bataan and Corrigedor. Adams deftly reveals to readers what these nurses endured while caring for wounded and dying soldiers, the suffering everyone experienced.

Additionally, Adams expertly portrays Audrey Thorpe's decline due to age, her difficulties in simple day to day tasks, her confusion over basic instructions, and her feelings of loss as she worries over losing her independence. When Deanna brings in a caregiver, Audrey is at first dismayed, but Laurel proves to be an ally, and one who will become key in bringing about the truth of Audrey's past.

This is a highly creative tale of friendship, loyalty, and honor among family and friends.

THE GOOD LUCK STONE will publish on July 7th 2020, and if you love historical fiction, this is one to add to your Goodreads WTR shelves!… (més)

This is the second fiction book by Heather Bell Adams. I loved her first book, Maranatha Road, so I had high hopes for her new book. I was thrilled to read it and find out that it was another fantastic novel by this wonderful new North Carolina author.

The Good Luck Stone is told in two time periods by Audrey Thorpe. In the present day, Audrey is 90 years old and living on her own in a grand old house in Savannah Georgia. Her heath and memory are beginning to fade so her granddaughter hires a caregiver to stay with her. Laurel and Audrey get along very well and Laurel becomes more like a friend than a caregiver.

Seventy years earlier, Audrey was a nurse in the Philippines as the Japanese Army started taking over the Pacific Islands. She made two good friends on her first day there as a nurse and they helped each other through the long days of treating soldiers and their fear about the war. The friendship between Kat, Penny and Audrey is so important that they bought jade brooches that they all wore when they were out of uniform. Jade because 'it promotes healing and surrounds the wearer with a shield of protection."

Even though her time in the Philippines was such an important part of her life, she's never shared it with anyone in her family. She had been keeping a secret from her time as a nurse that she had never shared in her 70 years. Her secret still bothered her and one morning she disappeared from her home without telling anyone, to see someone that she needed forgiveness from. She has found out late in her life that you can only outrun your secrets for so long.

This is a book about war and survival, family and love and most importantly about the importance of friendship. It's another fantastic book from Heather Bell Adams and I can't wait to read her future books.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.… (més)

As a reader, I love to find debut authors and follow their writing careers with their subsequent novels. When the book by the debut author is Southern fiction, it is an even bigger treat because that's my favorite genre to read. In the past two years, I have been lucky to find two debut authors of southern fiction and follow their careers - Kristy Woodson Harvey and Donna Everhart. Both authors had fantastic debuts (Kristy's was Dear Carolina and Donna's was The Education of Dixie Dupree) and each of them followed them up with books that were as good or better than their debuts. Now I have a new debut author to add to my list -- Heather Bell Adams. Her first novel, Maranatha Road is southern fiction at its best. I can't wait to see her future books.

The word Maranatha means that 'hope is coming' and is the perfect title for this book about two women who love the same man. The man is Mark, who dies very early in the novel. The two women who love him are Sadie, his mother and Tinley, the girl who is pregnant with his baby. The novel takes place in a small mountain town in NC where there are no secrets and everyone is overly concerned with their neighbor's business. After Mark dies, Tinley goes to see his mother to tell her about the baby. Sadie won't believe her - she had never met the girl plus Mark was engaged to someone else. Sadie turns Tinley away and Tinley has to cope with life as best she can. She has no family and no one to turn to so her life is very difficult especially when she has to make a decision whether to keep her baby or give it up for adoption. It's only later, when Sadie starts putting the pieces together (with a lot of help from the town gossips), that she begins to believe what Tinley told her and tries to undo her mistake of sending Tinley away.

The two main characters in this book are so well written that they fell like people I know in my life. They are both trying to be strong and trying to make their way through life without hurting other people. This is a book about love and family and forgiveness! Wonderful debut.… (més)