Twenty-year-old Abigail Turner has only known her mother, Claire—who died shortly after she was born—through letters, videos, postcards, and journals. Abby’s father, Josh, has raised his precious daughter himself, but his overprotectiveness has become stifling. Abby longs to forge out on her own and see the world after a childhood trapped indoors: she suffers from bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which means a case of the sniffles can rapidly escalate into life-threatening pneumonia.
But when Abby’s doctor declares her healthy—for now—her grandmother Millie whisks her away to Europe to visit the Christmas markets that her mother cherished and chronicled in her travel journals. Despite her father’s objections, Abby and Millie embark on a journey of discovery in which Abby will learn secrets that force her to reevaluate her image of her mother and come to a more mature understanding of a parent-child bond that transcends death.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Steena Holmes offers a tender and heartfelt exploration of parental love and a daughter’s longing for connection in the poignant next chapter following Saving Abby.
The Word Game was included in the Top 20 Novels to be Written by Women in 2015 by Good Housekeeping.
Her latest novel - The Word Game won the 2015 USA Books Award for Best Fiction and her novel, The Memory Child was a finalist in the same category.
Steena Holmes grew up in a small town in Canada and holds a Bachelors degree in Theology.
In 2012 she received the Indie Excellence Award. Holmes was inspired to write Finding Emma after experiencing a brief moment of horror when she’d thought her youngest daughter was missing.
She currently lives in Calgary with her husband and three daughters and loves to wake up to the Rocky Mountains each morning.
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Novels in her Finding Emma series:
Finding Emma
Dear Jack
Emma's Secret
Dottie's Memories
Megan's Hope
The Memory Child
The Memory Journal
Stillwater Bay Series:
Before the Storm
Stillwater Rising
The Word Game
Saving Abby
Abby's Journey, the sequel to Saving Abby, chronicles the story of the sacred child that Claire was determined to save, at the greatest cost of all. Abby, born prematurely, suffers from a lung condition that stops her from living a "normal life". Instead, under constant protection from her father, she's often either sick in the hospital, or being watched over by the anxiety-riddled father that once lost the love of his life and refuses to lose his daughter, too.
This story, told from multiple points of view, carries on Claire's legacy and allows the reader to see inside the mind of each character. Through letters written by Claire to her family, the reader is allowed, even further, into the mind and emotions of each of the characters.
Though the stories each have a different tone, they are both filled with adventure. While we get to see Europe through Claire's sad and grieving eyes in the first novel, we get to see it again through the naive and adventurous eyes of Abby as a young adult.
So, as it was Claire's wish to be a mother, it is Abby's wish to know her mother. And there is no love like that of a mother and daughter. Charming and romantic, heartbreaking and exciting, these stories are compelling and exceptionally written.
Guest Review
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