Friday's Pick!

As promised here is a great new review, sorry there is no cover art but this is a must read!
I really enjoyed After River, by Donna Milner, a touching, poignant debut novel about the bonds of family and also about the past and what has been left behind. Growing up in a close, loving family on a dairy farm in Atwood, British Columbia, less that two miles from the U.S. border, sixteen-year-old Natalie Ward believes her life is perfect. She is the only daughter of beautiful Nettie Ward, pride of the Catholic Ladies' Auxiliary and Gus Ward, the town's milkman. Natalie worships her three older brothers, especially Boyer, the eldest, with whom she whiles away many summer hours playing word games in his room up in the attic and reading his books. Everything changes one hot afternoon in July 1966 with the arrival of Richard "River" Jordan, a soft-spoken young American draft dodger whom Nettie has hired as a handyman. Events are set in motion that will leave family relationships shattered and Natalie separated from those she loves. Thirty five years later, Natalie is a three-times-married middle-aged mother who harbours deep secrets from her past. After receiving a phone call that her mother is dying, Natalie must return to the town of her childhood and try to make peace with the irrevocable tragedy of errors that she blames herself for creating all those years ago.
Donna Milner worked as a real estate agent for almost twenty five years before turning to writing full time. She lives in central British Columbia.