Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Published by Simon Schuster on August 1st 2017
Pages: 288
Goodreads

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate.
Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.
What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.
Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap.
Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel.

Choosing the first book of the year is always a hard choice for a book lover especially if a book lover has a lot of books on her shelf but I have to say that I am happy with what I chose this year. I decided to go with something new to me and Alice Hoffman is certainly a new to me author even though she has written quite a few books. Plus I have to say the cover is really pretty.

Faithful was a pretty quick read and I managed to pretty much devour it within a few sittings. Its a short quick read. I do admit that when I picked it up I didn’t read the back of the book  and perhaps this wasn’t the best book to kit of the new year because it wasn’t one of those happily ever after kind of books but none the less. I am happy I read it. Its definitely a tear jerker and will tug at your heart strings. Be fore warned to have some tissue on hand.

The book is told in our main character Shelby’s point of view. Shelby is racked with guilt and is hiding in her parents basement, hiding away from the world and feels that if she probably turn back time she would. She would never have drive the car with Helene that night and she would have stayed in.  Shelby and her friend, Helene are in a tragic car accident. Shelby walked away unhurt but scarred and Helene is in a coma. Every day is a struggle for Shelby. She is just barely surviving.

Then out of the blue these mysterious post cards start showing up and at first Shelby things its Helene because anyone who has gone to visit Helene claim she works miracles so I could see where Shelby would think she was behind the messages or had something to do with them.

With the help of Ben, who just happens to be the one supplying her with drugs they form this weird kind of relationship but at the time it works for Shelby. He manages to get out of her rut to see that she is truly deserving of living her life. They both decide to move to NYC and its there that she discovers things about herself that she never knew before and is slowly on the road to realizing that she is worthy of living and moving forward with her life.

It was nice to see Shelby come around and I can’t say I know what she was going through because I don’t but can only imagine. But I do know that throughout the book I couldn’t help but root for her to see the light and see that things would be okay.

After reading Faithful I have to say I am curious about Alice Hoffman’s other books and curious to read more. Have you read Alice Hoffman? What should I read next?