Book Review: ‘The Artist Of Blackberry Grange: A Novel’ By Paulette Kennedy

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The book is in stores on Tuesday, May 1st from Lake Union Publishing. Click on the link to buy a copy. https://amzn.to/4fQMdpT

The year is 1925 and Sadie Halloran is dealing with a lot, her mother died a month ago and she’s been having an affair with a married man, he gave her a ring and said he would leave his wife and then broke up with her. When she hears that her great-aunt Marguerite is in bad health and needs help, she leaves her home of Kansas City and moves to Arkansas and the mansion she lives in to care for her. There she meets Beckett, the handyman and helper, as well as the other staff and soon learns her aunt has some sore of dementia, and likes to paint pictures of her ex-lovers, family and a man named Weston, who is a ghost living in the house and sets his sights on Sadie and they have a brief affair until she ends it and he becomes angry. She soon falls in love with Beckett and takes trips via the paintings to see what her past was all about. It seems there are shocking family secrets, one big one involving her, and the only way to vanish Weston is for Marguerite to face her past and to make amends before it’s too late. This is a gothic-novel, that hits all the right notes. It starts off strong and never lets up. You follow along on the journey of these two women and do not want to put the book down, it’s a real page-turner. It’s also a love story and at its core about family. It’s one of the best books of the year so far!