The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry Review

The Favorite Daughter

By Patti Callahan Henry

Release Date: June 4th, 2019

Berkley Books

Source: ARC provided by the publisher

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home--until she learns of her dad's failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family's Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters' rift. While Alzheimer's slowly steals their father's memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena's own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

Have you ever thought that one of your parents hated you? That no matter what you do, that parent will often judge you as lacking? Despite the fact that it was your sister who slept with your fiancé the night before the wedding, your parent will always find you at fault? Well this is the life that Lena Donohue has lived, and since the fiasco at the wedding that never happened ten years ago, Lena tried to stay away as much as possible, and when her mother seemed to blame her for this mess, it made Lena stay away more, and even after her mother died, too much hurt and not enough resolution had happened, and Lena stayed in New York. 

But after an emergency phone call from her brother, who has taken over running the families Irish bar, asking her to come and take care of her ailing father, Lena headed home to Watersend, truly home for the first time in 10 years, to be with the only parent she truly felt loved by, but while doing that, she also had to face the pain of the past, and the secrets she was never supposed to know! 

WOW! This book is WOW! It’s a make you ugly cry, break your heart kind of a book, and if this is the type of book that Patti Callahan Henry writes all the time? then she is now one of my new favorite authors. But it truly is one of the best books I have read this year. The plot mesmerizes you, the characters grip your heart, and by the end of the book, even though your heart is broken, you know that one couple will get their happy ever after! And no! I don't care that I'm talking like this book is a real person! 

There is only one score I can give The Favorite Daughter and that is 5 stars! It really should be a hallmark movie.

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Bookshop at Water’s End, The Idea of Love, The Stories We Tell, and Driftwood Summer. As Patti Callahan, she’s the author of the USA Today bestseller Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and nominated multiple times for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Book Award for Fiction, Patti is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs, and women’s groups.