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jackiebcentraltexas

Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories

Lifelong Texan, love reading from many genres thanks to early childhood readalongs with my Dad, love cooking for my family, working in my yard, playing with my cats and since being diagnosed in late 2012 with RRMS finding ways to keep body and mind active is even more important.

Painted From Memories

Painted From Memories - Barbara Forte Abate Book Info
Paperback, 304 pages
Published June 21st 2014 by Halcyon Moon Books
ISBN 0692209344 (ISBN13: 9780692209349)
edition language English
other editions None found
Source:Digital copy from author

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BOOK SYNOPSIS


She considers telling him the truth—that she isn't the person he thinks she is—but in the end she doesn't. To say something is to potentially say everything. And it is simply too late...

The emotionally fractured casualty of a hideous childhood tragedy, Catherine has at last found her happy-ever-after in the person of Grayson Barnett, and it is the promise of a freshly polished future that compels her to bury the poisonous trail of her past beneath the purposeful lies and omissions she offers her new husband.

But now, with the inherent shame of her traumatic history secreted away and losing hold, Cat finds herself increasingly troubled as Gray falls into an erratic pattern of late night wanderings through the house, painting the bare walls with extravagant murals. And only when the unthinkable happens—a devastating blow which leaves her broken and spiraling—and an unexpected arrival on her doorstep, bearing a cache of impossible revelations—is Cat forced to question whether the man she so desperately loves is in truth a stranger and their beautiful life a gross falsehood constructed upon a foundation of lies.

My Thoughts


This is without a doubt not a lighthearted contemporary romance, it is instead a journey through Cat’s memories that skirt the edge of madness at times and at others take the leap straight into a form of insanity.

Coming from a childhood filled with mental anguish Cat never expects to find anyone who she would find herself able to love, that holds true until Gray Barnett comes along. As they are both artists they have something in common from the very beginning, as they spend more time together that passion to create stirs other passions which lead the pair to marry.

Now having moved from Georgia they start over in the backwater town of Lost River Maine, Gray has found an old ramshackle house formerly used by it’s previous owner as a summer getaway apparently and they purchase it for their own.

Years later we find Cat and Gray still happily married but while Cat has found an outlet for her creativeness Gray is going to work every day at the local sawmill, a job that pays the bills, puts food on the table but does not fulfill him.

As one finds out along the way what Cat is hiding from Gray we understand that the horrors from her childhood have never allowed her to truly embrace the happiness in life other people take for granted, when Gray’s actions become a cause for concern she does not know how to break down the barriers between them to get to the root of what is wrong.

There comes a point in the story that changes everything, it will bring you to your knees right along with Cat and than just when you think there are no more surprises to come the last 10 chapters prove you wrong and in such a way that it brings hope for Cat back into your heart!

The word pictures that author Barbara Forte Abate craft in the telling of this story are ones that will stand out in your mind long after the last page is turned.

Upon finishing this one finds oneself releasing a long held breath, not sure if is in relief or some other unidentifiable emotion caused by reading something filled with so much tragedy, heartache, pain and then finally an ending that brings one full circle but with a promise of a better future for Cat.