The Shadow Wife by Diane ChamberlainMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is really two lovely stories in one. One takes place in the middle of the last century, while the other is closer to present day. The story is told by different narrators in different chapters, moving back and forth through time. Everyone is connected to one lovely soul - Shanti Joy, a.k.a. Joelle, who was born on a commune in California during the 1960s, and saved by a beautiful young doctor that happened to be visiting the commune. The stories of that doctor and her twin sister, as well as Joelle's and her best friend Mara - devastated by a brain aneurysm one year before - and her husband Liam, make up the bulk of this story set along the foggy, craggy California coast.
I mostly enjoyed this story, though it did drag here and there, and though I did have the "twist" figured out very early on. It's a nice, quiet, entertaining read though and great for relaxing with a cup of tea and a purring cat on your lap for a few hours.
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