A Sound Among the Trees

I received this book quite a while ago, except that the UPS man did not deliver it to the right door and I never saw it. Fast forward to now when I read this book! I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.

Susan Meissner delivers an intriguing tale of deception, rumors and unsure love in this book set in modern day Virginia. A Sound Among the Trees is something of a ghost tale where family matriarch Adelaide runs Holly Oak, a plantation house, that has been occupied by her family for generations and is thought to be haunted by her great-grandmother Susannah Page.

Adelaide's grandson-in-law Carson, who was widowed by her granddaughter Sara 4 years before, is remarrying. He moves his new bride Marielle into Adelaide's plantation home. Yes, you read that right, her granddaughter's widower, his two children, and the new wife. I thought it was an odd arrangement to be sure. The modern story focuses on how Marielle adjusts to living in the literal shadow of the late Sara. She is compared to Sara by all of Adelaide's old lady friends, by her new husband Carson, by his children Hudson and Brette and by Adelaide herself. She wonders if she will ever stack up.

But when Adelaide's friends tell Marielle about the ghost that haunts the house, her curiosity is piqued. Susannah was thought to be a spy for the North during the Civil War after marrying a Southern officer. Marielle begins to search for answers including calling a local psychic. Adelaide tries to tell her there is no ghost, it's the house that is cursed.

Things take an interesting twist when the deceased Sara's dead-beat mother, Caroline (daughter to Adelaide) shows up. Only now Caroline has sobered up and wants to help her mother and the grandchildren she has never known. Caroline winds up helping Marielle feel more adequate as a new wife and mother to Carson, Hudson and Brette.

Through all this Marielle and Caroline discover and reveal letters written by supposed ghost Susannah to her cousin in Maine that reveals everything that happened during the war.

Confusing though it sounds, this was a good book and I enjoyed reading it. It did seem a little far-fetched and I would have much preferred to read two separate books - one centered on Marielle coming into the family as a new wife and step-mother and then one that told the story of Susannah. It was a little much all together as one book.

I would give A Sound Among the Trees 3.5 stars out of 5. Very well written!