Review: The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

The Things We Wish Were True

by Marybeth Mayhew Wilson

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 276

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  In an idyllic small-town neighborhood, a near tragedy triggers a series of dark revelations.

From the outside, Sycamore Glen, North Carolina, might look like the perfect all-American neighborhood. But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.

Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.

During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

Kritters Thoughts:  There are family dramas and then there is this - a family drama with a neighborhood drama to boot!  Within each family there is drama going on, normal family drama, nothing extreme, but at times their drama intermixes with their neighbors and that is what makes this book above the rest!

Told through MULTIPLE perspectives, this book takes place over one summer and is just entertaining.  I may have used a post it note or two to keep the families together and the issue their family was facing, but it didn't hinder the reading experience.  

If you love multi family dramas and small town America where the pool is the place to get the news, then stop what you are reading and pick this one up!  

I was more than excited to look up this author after finishing and seeing that she had a backlist, I may have to go and grab her other things and read them promptly!  Have you read Marybeth Mayhew Whalen?  What is your favorite of hers?


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.