Book Review: The Healing Summer

In the Fiction Review Corner with Lauren

The Healing Summer by Heather Moore is a romantic story of two neighbors who go on an adventure to get closure and find ways to move forward in their lives. They set out to find the man who saved Maggie’s life in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 so that she can try to repay him. Jo, her recently divorced neighbor, agrees and they set out on their journey. Maggie, although she is 94 and spent much of her life married to another man, seems to have her heart set on finding her hero. At her age, though, she knows this may be an impossible task. Almost immediately upon their arrival and after a few phone calls, they are able to track down some of his relatives and they find out what happened in the many years since Maggie had last seen her first love. An unexpected love story unfolds that help both women heal from lost love and broken hearts.

 
This book is a short, sweet read that made me feel like I was reading a Hallmark movie. I found the storyline of the book extremely interesting and enjoyed reading about the character’s back stories. However, everything in the story came so easily to the characters that I kept expecting drama to unfold or something bad to happen, but nothing like that came along. It was just a happy story of a woman who finds everything she was looking for. If you are looking for a cute read with a happy ending, this was a fun one to pick up.

Get your copy here

Here's the back copy:

At the age of ninety-four, Maggie Howard’s final wish is to return to San Francisco and find out what happened to the young man who saved her life in 1906 after the disastrous earthquake and fires that devastated the city. They’d been trapped beneath a collapsed roof for hours, injured and unable to call for help.

The morning of their rescue, Orlando Gallo promised he would find her again. But Maggie hasn’t seen or heard from him in over seventy years, and now, widowed and childless, Maggie hopes to leave her estate to Orlando’s descendants. She invites her neighbor, forty-year-old Jo Sampson, to travel with her, and as the two women return to San Francisco to track down Orlando, they form a strong bond of friendship and healing that transcends time and place.