Review: The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

Expected Publication: June 4, 2019

Publisher: Berkley Books

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home--until she learns of her dad's failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family's Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters' rift. While Alzheimer's slowly steals their father's memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena's own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

My Thoughts

After finding out the ultimate betrayal on her wedding day Lena left home and never spoke to her sister again and only came home if she never saw her sister either. However, after a call from her brother she comes back home after her father is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and her family needs her help.

She is close to her brother who has taken it upon himself to care for his dad and now runs the family business, a pub he knows his father needs the family more than ever and calls on Lena and her sister in hopes they bury the hatchet and come together for their father’s sake. Growing up Lena always felt a distance of sorts from her mother but never knew exactly while but soon she will discover a long kept secret while sorting out her father’s belonging. This happens when they agree to have a party in honor of their father in hopes of celebrating his life before the disease takes all his memory away.

In time we learn why Lena ran off from her family and why she and her sister don’t talk. We also learn why Lena always felt like a stranger in her own family and why her father was so close to her.

This is a story with secrets coming out of every angle, which I loved! I felt like it was the gift that kept on giving, with layers upon layers being peeled back and the truth being revealed. I felt as if there were two storylines being told one was the conflict between Lena and her sister and the other the secret her father held from her.  Both were amazing stories and tied together beautifully, I especially felt as if Lena finally came into her own and made peace with herself in the end.

The Favorite Daughter is an amazing story with a great storyline about family and forgiveness. While forgiving others is great I find that forgiving within yourself heals yourself like nothing else. It gives you that inner peace that nothing else or no one can give you. This is a great book for the summer one that needs to be thrown in your beach bag and be read by the pool, beach or simply in the comfort of your home.