Melissa Dance was eight years old when her mother died. They never got to say goodbye.
Seventeen years later, Melissa is handed a journal. As she smoothes open the pages and begins to read her mother’s words, she is instantly transported back to her childhood.
As I write now, you are eight years old – asleep in the bed next door in princess pyjamas, with a fairy costume discarded on the floor.
Twenty-Five. The age I had you. The age our story began. And the age, I hope, that will see you truly ready for the things that I need to say to you…
Melissa’s boyfriend has just popped the question, but ever since she lost her mother, she’s afraid – of what, even she isn’t sure. So though she loves Sam, she tells him she isn’t ready to get married. Sam is afraid that Melissa will leave him, Melissa is afraid she will lose Sam. And in the middle of this drama, the lawyers call to hand over her mother’s diary. Her mother. Whom she hasn’t really mourned properly. Who died, suddenly, and left her alone – a bundle of nervous ticks and an over analysing mind. Scared of disappearing in the middle of her story.
But as she starts to read her mother’s words, the photographs and recipes pry her childhood memories lose. Memories she had buried deep within her, so much so that she isn’t sure if they are real, or if she is just imagining the scenes presented by the pictures and the words in the journal. As Melissa slowly makes her way through the book, Driscoll alternates between the past and the present – between Melissa’s mother Eleanor’s last days and Melissa’s current worries and fears.
As Melissa slowly makes her way through the book, the entries start to take a darker turn as Eleanor shares some details about the incidence of cancer in her family and the possibility that she may be genetically predisposed to cancer. As Melissa grapples with the implications of this information, she is
also shocked to learn of her mother’s secrets – secrets that if shared, could change Melissa’s world forever.
Featuring some simple, hearty recipes and some beautiful snippets of advice from a mother to a daughter, Driscoll builds up a beautiful, uplifting novel. She makes you feel Melissa’s pain and fears; her father, Max’s heartbreak and eventual healing; and Eleanor’s desperate attempt to try and find all the pieces of the cancer puzzle in time.
This beautifully crafted novel with its poignant legacy from a mother to her daughter makes for a perfect summer read...but it might just stay with you long after you turn the last page.
