Book Review–The Secret of Lost Stones

Hello all! I have been reading books on Kindle a lot lately and I must say, I seem to read faster on Kindle than on physical book….

Anyway, just finished reading The Secret of Lost Stones by Melissa Payne which I got free from Amazon Kindle. I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you all!

A soul-stirring novel about the bonds between mother and child and the redemption that comes with facing the past and letting it go.

Thirty-two-year-old Jess Abbot has lost everything: her job, her apartment, and—most heart-wrenching—her eight-year-old son, Chance, to a tragic accident. Haunted by memories and grief, Jess packs what’s left and heads for the small mountain town of Pine Lake, where she takes a position as caregiver to an eccentric old woman.

A rumored clairvoyant, Lucy is strange but welcoming and immediately intuits Jess as a “loose end” in need of closure. But Jess isn’t the only guest in Lucy’s large Victorian home. There’s also Star, a teenage runaway with a secret too painful to share. And the little boy with heart-shaped stones, who comes with a hope for reconciliation—and a warning.

Soon Jess learns that she’s not the only lost soul running from the ghosts of the past. She and Star have been brought together for a reason: to be saved by the very thing that destroyed them.

• Print Length: 332 pages
• Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (September 1, 2019)
• Publication Date: September 1, 2019
• Genre:- Magical Fiction/Friendship

As a middle child, Melissa Payne was born to tell stories. What started with blaming her brother for breaking the car window evolved to a graduate thesis that she desperately wishes she could rewrite to blogging on motherhood and marriage. Now she likes to create stories set in wild and beautiful places with characters in flawed and imperfect relationships, whether that’s between a mother and a daughter, friends or strangers. And imagining all of it with just a hint of the ethereal, a whisper of something beyond what we can see and a sense that it’s all for a purpose.

So as I said earlier, I got this kindle edition free from Amazon. So in a nutshell, the story is told from the perspectives of two characters–Jess who is a thirty something year old woman, dealing with the death of her son, Chance and Star, a homeless teenager. Both encounter an eccentric old woman named Lucy, who seemed to be having a gift of some sort of psychosis (or fortune telling?) about the future. Jess who is on the verge of committing suicide becomes Lucy’s caregiver and Star leaves her homeless life behind and moves into Lucy’s house. But Lucy has brought both Star and Jess on a purpose. And there is a certain little boy with red sweatshirt who is hovering around Lucy’s house.

So as usual, let’s start with the ones I like about the book.

• The author has written the book in such an engaging style that makes the reader want to read more with the thirst of what is going to happen next. (yeah sometimes I read through the night)
• The author has written in simple English which was easier to understand.
• The book is also realistic and tells the day to day struggles that most single mothers face (especially when dealing with finances). Also the life on the streets described in the book was realistic, making you feel worried for Star.
• I actually feel sorry for both the main characters, Jess and Star as both faced hard times during a particular part of their lives. I like how until the end only Jess realized that Star was her son’s best friend (SPOILER ALERT!!!)
• I like the friendship bond between Lucy and Ebee and the sort of motherly bond that Jess shares with Star.
• Though Lucy was annoying at times as we don’t make sense of what she is actually trying to say, and her engrossment with the crossword puzzles, I found her character quiet likable.
• I also like the sort of friendship going on between Jeremy and Star.

Now about the things I didn’t like

• Actually, there was nothing much to dislike though at times, it was a bit emotional to read.

Overall, this was actually a good debut book by this author and I actually enjoyed reading the book. Worth five stars!