Hallie's Heart

Title: HALLIE’S HEART
Author: Shelly Beach
Publisher: Kregel Publications
January 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2436-6
Genre: Inspirational/contemporary

MoNa VanderMolen owns a struggling antique store and most weekends find her out scouting for rare finds. Life isn't easy in the antique business. She discovers that dealers often outbid her at auctions. Now, someone has offered to buy her out. But Mona's a fighter and she will survive—she hopes.

When Mona goes to her beach house to escape from some problems she is shocked to discover her fifteen year old niece, Hallie, already there. Mona and Hallie’s relationship was shattered over a year ago when Hallie’s mother blames Mona for something and refuses to allow Hallie and Mona to see each other. But now Hallie is trying to teach her mom a lesson—but Mona wants to try to break down the barriers and win her nieces love and trust again. Is that possible? Or will the earlier tragedy destroy the family relationship for good?

HALLIE’S HEART is Ms. Beach’s debut novel—though I’m not really sure why I received it in the fall of 2011 to review...four years after it’s release. Looking on Amazon I see Ms. Beach has had other books released since then. But they appear to be nonfiction. I’ve never read any of her books.

Mona and Hallie are both realistically developed. I loved the beach setting on Lake Michigan. Some of the dream sequences were a little hard to follow, and the story did drag in spots. But all in all, it was a nice read. $12.99. 240 pages.