It’s probably the best recommendation I can give women’s fiction; recommended to my mother. I think she’ll appreciate Robin Wells’ epic novel, The Wedding Tree.

At 91, Adelaide McCauley is ready to die when she finds herself looking down from the ceiling in her hospital room. However, her mother tells her she can’t cross over until she reveals family secrets to her granddaughter, Hope. Hope is in the room with her Uncle Eddie and his partner, Ralph, when they’re all told Adelaide can’t live at home by herself. It’s then that Hope jumps in to offer assistance.

Hope really has no place to go after her short-lived marriage broke up, leaving her penniless and without a job. A short stay at her grandmother’s in Wedding Tree, Louisiana might be just what she needs as she helps Gran clean out her possessions before she moves to California with Eddie. It will turn out to be a time of discovery for both women. But, Hope had no idea a little girl would crawl through the doggy door and discover her trying on Gran’s dressing gown. What is even more embarrassing is when Sophie’s father, Matt, comes looking for his daughter, and sees her as well.

Adelaide, Hope and Matt all serve as narrators for this compelling, sometimes heart wrenching story. It’s Adelaide’s story, though, that truly is moving and bittersweet. As she drifts into the past, she takes the reader to World War II New Orleans, where she’s living her dream, working as a photographer for a newspaper. And, it’s there she falls in love. But, the war, parental pressure, and contemporary standards force her to leave everything behind and return to Wedding Tree. And, it’s in Wedding Tree that she hides a secret that will forever haunt her.

The Wedding Tree is a multigenerational romance featuring two spirited women. But, it’s Adelaide who will break your heart, the woman who lived at a time when women were expected to stay home, raise children, and not work outside the house. Fortunately, all three narrators do find unexpected ways to achieve their dreams in this enjoyable novel.

Robin Wells’ website is www.robinwells.com

The Wedding Tree by Robin Wells. Berkley. 2015. ISBN 9780425282359 (paperback), 432p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received this book from a review journal.