![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d.gr-assets.com\/books\/1419877778l\/24032648.jpg\")
I hardly know what to say about this book. I cried almost all the way through, yet I couldn\u2019t put it down. Actually, I laughed almost as much as I cried. So be warned – unless you\u2019re made of much sterner stuff than I am, you\u2019ll need a good supply of hankies nearby while you read.<\/p>\n
This is an extraordinary book. It\u2019s a love story, and no, that\u2019s not a euphemism for romance, this really is a story about love. And not your conventional couple, either. Jack was raised by his best friend\u2019s mother, Miss Margret, and returned every year to visit her and her granddaughter, Emma Lee. When Miss Margret died, the visits stopped but now Jack\u2019s back, and finds Emma Lee still living in the same house, and raising her own daughter. Jack has some secrets to share, but Emma has a secret of her own – she\u2019s been in love with him since she was a child.<\/p>\n
Now if you thought a love story between a fifty-something man and a thirty-something women might feel a little odd, don\u2019t worry, it all feels totally natural and beautifully real. Jack and Emma are not extraordinary people, they don\u2019t have unusual talents or great wealth or outstanding beauty. They\u2019re just ordinary folks who live ordinary lives in an ordinary town, yet their story is anything but ordinary.<\/p>\n
This is the author\u2019s debut publication, but it\u2019s as fine a piece of writing as I\u2019ve seen anywhere. This is the south, and the dialogue and the tiny nuances of southern life are a pleasure to read, so evocative you could almost be there. Even for me, a Brit, that slow way of life wrapped itself around like a warm blanket. Here\u2019s Jack telling the preacher there\u2019s going to be a wedding:<\/p>\n
Jack found Brother Fillmore out back, shooing two half-grown hogs back into their pen. He was the only man Jack had ever seen who could work outside all day and have his overalls as pressed and clean as when he\u2019d put them on.<\/p>\n He was a slim man, just a bit shorter than Jack, but his dignity and bearing always made him seem larger to Jack. He had to be over eighty, though he looked much younger, and he\u2019d lived alone since his wife had passed, back in the nineties.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t seem all that surprised at Jack\u2019s news, but Jack didn\u2019t recall ever seeing him surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Emma\u2019s needed a good man to give her some direction for some time,\u201d Brother Fillmore said. \u201cShe\u2019s not meant to go it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes sir,\u201d Jack said.<\/p>\n \u201cHow long have you been home, son?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust a little while,\u201d Jack said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve not been living in sin \u2018til this time, have you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo sir,\u201d Jack said. \u201cNo sinning at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I\u2019ll be pleased to join you in celebrating,\u201d Brother Fillmore said. \u201cI\u2019ll need to come up with an appropriate gift.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo gift necessary, sir,\u201d Jack said. \u201cJust bring yourself; bring a dish if you like.\u201d<\/p>\n Brother Fillmore pointed his cane at the smaller of the hogs he\u2019d just penned. \u201cThat one just tore up all my Black Krim tomatoes,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll bring him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How can you resist? Highly recommended. Five stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I hardly know what to say about this book. I cried almost all the way through, yet I couldn\u2019t put it down. Actually, I laughed almost as much as I cried. So be warned – unless you\u2019re made of much sterner stuff than I am, you\u2019ll need a good supply of hankies nearby while you read. This is an extraordinary book. It\u2019s a love story, and no, that\u2019s not a euphemism for romance, this really is a story about love. And not your conventional couple, either. Jack was raised by his best friend\u2019s mother, Miss Margret, and returned every year to visit her and her granddaughter, Emma Lee. When Miss Margret died, the visits stopped but now Jack\u2019s back, and finds Emma Lee still living in the same house, and raising her own daughter. Jack has some secrets to share, but Emma has a secret of her own – she\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1371,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}