‘More Than Words’ a tale of love, redemption
In Robert Barclay's "More Than Words Can Say," Chelsea Enright comes from a wealthy family from upstate New York and has everything one might desire — a good job teaching, a home of her own, a loving family — yet she feels dissatisfied with life.
Her routine gets shaken up though when her grandmother dies and leaves Chelsea her lakeside cottage in the Adirondacks. She leaves Chelsea a mysterious note, with a key, instructing her to go to the cottage alone and open a tin box hidden beneath floorboards.
What Chelsea finds inside the box are her Grandmother Brooke's diaries, dating back to World War II. As she reads the diary entries, Chelsea learns things about her grandmother that she never knew — her zest for life, her longing for her husband who had gone off to war, and a tragic secret that forever changed her life.
As Chelsea settles into the area, she meets a local doctor named Brandon Yale who lives in the cottage next to hers. She finds that she is drawn to the handsome, kind man and begins to share her grandmother’s story with him. But Chelsea soon finds out that Brandon has a past of his own to share.
The story goes back and forth between present and past as Chelsea and Brandon read Brooke's diary entries. As Chelsea reads the journal, she visits the same places her grandmother mentions as history begins to repeat itself. She feels connected to her grandmother more than ever. Chelsea also learns about a mysterious man in her grandmother's life, an artist named Greg Butler.
Whether it is a fascination with the time period or the fact that we are losing so many of the soldiers of that age, there seems to be more and more books set during World War II. One of the best I’ve come across lately is “More Than Words Can Say.”
Barclay touches on a plethora of emotions with this fascinating novel. Love, tragedy, loss and redemption are all significant areas as readers travel through history. Barclay's descriptions of the lake area of the serene town of Serendipity are charming, and his cast of characters are very personable and likable.
"More Than Words Can Say" is written for the women’s fiction market, and it is a remarkable feat for a man to be able to address the thoughts, feelings and emotions that are key elements in this genre. Barclay handles the task with poise and talent.
