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Daisy McCrae’s life seems perfect. She is a talented and successful investment banker with a boyfriend and a bright future. She loves her mom and dad and her two sisters, but she has left most of the past behind, or so she thinks.
But then everything changes. She loses her job, her boyfriend, and her apartment in short order. Her family needs her help to save the Union Street Bakery, which has been the family business for more than 150 years. So she moves back home to the attic of the bakery, where the past soon catches up with her, literally and figuratively.
Daisy’s family loves her and she loves them, but they were not hers from birth. Her birth mother abandoned her at the bakery when she was three, and the McCrae family adopted her. Consequently, Daisy has always felt like she didn’t quite belong, and even 30 years later, she wonders why her birth mom didn’t want her.
Plus, there are literally ghosts in the attic. One of them was Daisy’s friend in childhood. The other is a mystery.
And he’s not the only mystery. When an old neighbor leaves Daisy a diary from the 1850s, she and her sister set out to discover the story of the owner and what it might have to do with Daisy herself. Add to that the arrival in town of Daisy’s ex-boyfriend and she has a lot to deal with. And then her birth mother writes a letter.
This book has mystery, history, a little romance, the paranormal, and a strong family saga. Nothing is over the top. Even the ghosts are just a thread in the pattern. Readers will love Daisy and the McCrae family and be engrossed in both the historical and the present puzzles Daisy and her family must solve.
Taylor never takes the simple plot path or gives in to melodrama. The story feels real. Ultimately, the book is about what we think we need versus what really matters and what it really means to be a family. It is highly recommended for anyone who loves family stories with intelligence and heart,
