Silver's Reviews

Mothers staying, mothers leaving, daughters staying, daughters leaving.

When Vivian Walker returns after nine years, she happens upon the scene of an uprooted tree with human bones exposed.  She also finds her mother who is in the early stages of dementia.  Whose bones could they be?  Why did the skeleton have half of a necklace that when complete would say:  I Love You Forever.

Could Mathilda, the 104-year-old servant know the answer about the necklace? That necklace and its saying played a major part in the secret that had been kept all these years and a secret that no one really knew was a secret except one person.

A LONG TIME GONE is set in Mississippi and has that Southern charm along with Southern traditions and genuine, believable​ characters.  You will meet the women of the Walker family as each chapter is headed with one of the women's stories being told.  

The book moves back and forth ​from 1923 to 2013 following the Walker women with their secrets and their reasons for leaving and coming back to their families.

You will love Chole; you will feel sorry for Vivian, and you will wonder what made Carol Lynn leave her children all those years ago and then return at random times and leave again.  The reason is quite interesting.

Ms. White again has written a beautiful family saga with emphasis on mothers and daughters.  A LONG TIME GONE had wonderful descriptions of characters, scenes, and feelings as well as reminding all of us that family is everything.

​I enjoyed A LONG TIME GONE because I like reading about Southern-style living and ​reading about families and the secrets they have carried through the years.

The secret and the bones found is one of the major themes and a theme that has a great twist.  As the mystery of those buried bones became unraveled, the story took on an even better turn. 5/5

​I received this book free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.​

Have you read A LONG TIME GONE?  I would love to know what you think.