My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When soon-to-be mother Charlotte "Charlie" Cates begins to have recurring dreams about harm coming to her unborn daughter, she knows these are not the nightmares of an anxious mom-to-be. They are the result of her mysterious gift. But before she can decipher what these dreams might mean, Charlie learns that the mother who abandoned her when she was a toddler is the victim of a double murder in Arizona. The other victim Jasmine, a half-sister Charlie never knew she had has left behind a child, a little girl who speaks to Charlie in her dreams and was present on the night of the murders. Convinced that she must help her orphaned niece, Charlie travels to Tucson, Arizona, where she must confront her painful ties to her mother and delve into her sister s shadowy past.
To untangle the web of secrets that will reveal the truth of her nightmares, Charlie can no longer avoid her family s checkered history. Who is in the racy photos that turned up in Jasmine s apartment? Where is her niece s father, whom Jasmine was rumored to have been seeing again on the sly? Was her mother s charity work in Mexico really as selfless as it seemed? And most important of all, what did her niece really witness on the night of the murders?
The search for answers leads Charlie across the Mexican border, from the resort town of Rocky Point to the border town of Nogales, and elucidates the meaning of her dreams in most unexpected ways. Ultimately, to protect her niece and her unborn child, Charlie must battle not just evil but the forces of nature, in one final terrifying encounter in the Tucson desert.
A thrilling mystery that combines literary suspense and romance with a mystical twist that is unputdownable. If you love Kate Atkinson and Alice Sebold, you should not miss Hester Young.
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The Shimmering Road is the sequel to The Gates of Evangeline that I devoured not long ago. I was excited to once again step into Charlotte "Charlie" Cates world and to see what she would take on this time. The last book was really thrilling, so this book had much to live up to. And, yes I liked the book. However, it just couldn't beat The Gates of Evangeline story and atmospheric setting of Louisiana. Arizona and Mexico just don't rock my boat as much as a setting in Louisiana does.
Also, the story is pretty obvious (sure The Gates of Evangeline was predictable as well, but it had a glorious setting to add to the story) and often I just waited for the penny to drop for Charlie. However, I did enjoy the story enough to find myself wanting to know more. Why Charlie's mother and sister were murdered, what would happen to her niece, etc. Charlie's visions is an added bonus to the story. I simply adore books with psychics.
The Shimmering Road is a perfectly all right book. Not intensive enough to really make my heart racing, but still interesting enough to keep my attention. Also, I've come to really like Charlie and I'm looking forward to reading The Burning Island when it's released in 2019.
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