Review: The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

The Favorite Daughter

by Patti Callahan Henry

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 368

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home--until she learns of her dad's failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family's Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters' rift. While Alzheimer's slowly steals their father's memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena's own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

Kritters Thoughts:  Lena Donohue has only returned to her small hometown in South Carolina a handful of times since her disastrous wedding day, going back there takes her straight back to that day, so when her brother calls her home because their dad is in declining health, she must return and face the truths that she has avoided for years.

Although I have been avoiding books with cheating in them, this book is more a story about family and the resilience of family.  Through it all your family will be there wether you like it or not!  It was so interesting watching this family confront truths and really trying to rebuild their family piece by piece.  I loved how Henry wrote this family, you have sympathy for all and you are really hoping for each to find resolution and happiness.

Characters are one thing in this book, but so was the setting!  I loved this small town in South Carolina.  I could picture it completely.  I grew up in a small southern town and the feeling of everyone knowing everyone else and knowing everything about you and your family is such a feeling that is missing in big cities and it makes everything about this book possible.  

I was already a Patti Callahan Henry fan before this book and continue to be so after!    


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2019 Challenge: 26 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley PRH.  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.