Book Review and Giveaway: The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Harper Collins, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

Synopsis: Ruby Rousseau is haunted by her memories. First, her father is killed in a hit-and-run accident in their hometown of New Orleans. Then, a year later, Ruby dropped out of Tarble, a college for women in the Midwest, just before graduating. A painful love affair had pushed her to the brink of tragedy, throwing her whole life out of balance.

Now, ten months later, a suitcase belonging to a former classmate, Beth Richards, arrives on her doorstep, plunging Ruby into a dark mystery. Beth has gone missing, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts. Inside the bag, Ruby finds a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, the book she believes was a harbinger of her own madness. Is someone sending her a message—and what does it mean?

Along with Virginia Woolf, the works of Sylvia Plath and Charlotte Perkins Gilman provide a cautionary tale for Ruby as an aspiring writer balancing the trials and tribulations of life as a young woman.

A search for answers leads Ruby back to Tarble, and as she digs into Beth’s past, Ruby is forced to confront her own—a journey that will lead her to reexamine her final days at school, including the married professor who broke her heart.

Review: It is so HARD to believe this is Amy's FIRST novel! But as she says, it was a long while in the making, with ideas coming at different times, so she obviously had time to let the story ferment and evolve in her head before putting it to paper! And oh how that aging process created a stunning book! I read it in ONE sitting- I literally could not put it down, even though I thought I knew what all was happening, Amy still pulled out a couple of surprises at the end! She gives you a spellbound enducing read that is perfect for curling up in front of an early Fall fire with! It is a tale of the past, and how it influences the future, how the shimmers left take over our lives (like the light of the stars in the night sky, being light from the past (as the stars are light years away from us), and create our paths, unless we stop and decide not to let them. 

And for those you call NOLA home, Amy crafts a book of time and place that will have you smiling and reminiscing along with Ruby. As Ruby says after returning after a year's absence: "being back in New Orleans was like kissing an ex-boyfriend, simultaneously familiar and foreign, I knew this place by heart, yet it had changed". 

Don't miss this one- it will be the talk of the Fall!

About the Author: Born in the Chicago suburbs, Amy Gail Hansen spent her early childhood near New Orleans. She holds a BA in English from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A former English teacher, she works as a freelance writer and journalist in suburban Chicago, where she lives with her husband and three children. Check out her website for more.


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