This novel started off great. I even had to return it to the library and checked it back out as soon as I could, so that I could finish it and see what happened.

Sadly I should have just let it go, and let it be one of those books that I remembered I wanted to finish. Antoine and his sister, Melanie visit a hotel by the beach for the her birthday. A hotel they use to visit every summer with their parents before their mother passed away in 1973. On the way home Melanie crashes the car just after she mentions that she remembered a secret from their past.

The next 300 pages are spent with Antonie wondering if he should push the issue with his recovering sister, dealing with his three children who seem to be slipping further and further away from him, his allying distant father, and his ex-wife.

First off, I predicted the "secret" pretty early on. And the revel of the secret is very very VERY ill timed. When Melanie finally remembers what she was trying to tell her brother, it doesn't feel important or to even matter with what is actually happening RIGHT THEN. This was 35 years ago, their mother is dead, does this really matter. Yes I can imagine it would come as a shock, but with the current life Antoine is living it just really doesn't matter.

The author also switches her POV's for no good reason. It doesn't happen very often, but every so often the next chapter will be told in third person instead of from Antoine's perspective.

Also the French words were very distracting for me. I realize that this will not be the same for all readers, especially ones who understand the language, but I found them irritating.

I really liked the authors writing style, but they way the story unfolded was not done well. I wouldn't recommend this novel.