In My Mother's Footsteps by Forbes Arnone

In My Mother's Footsteps by Forbes Arnone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of In My Mother's Footsteps by Forbes Arnone from StoryCartel.com in exchange for an honest review.

When Anela Alborn's mother, Carla, dies from an undetected aneurism, Anela meets with Lennie Metting to go over the arrangements Carla has put into place for Anela's future. At the time of her death, Carla and Anela were estranged with no reconciliation planned as far as Anela was concerned. Carla had hidden information about her background, including her parentage, from Arnela, and Arnela was so hurt by the information Carla had withheld from her that she preferred to have nothing to do with her mother after that. However, the finality of death makes Anela reconsider the estrangement in a whole different light. She and her mother had been very close, each believing all they had was each other. Anela felt very alone and disconnected from events in her life that she could no longer share with her mother.

Carla had provided Anela with the means to explore the past that up until the present had been a vague story about a father who had been killed in battle during wartime. This version of Arnela's beginnings was untrue, and Anela decides to trace the path her mother had laid out for her before she died. To do this, Anela has to travel from her home in California to an island in Hawaii that holds the answers to Anela's many questions about her heritage. With no idea of what she will find in the beautiful paradise that makes up the whole of Hawaii, Anela takes on the somewhat daunting quest to find out who she is and where she came from.

In My Mother's Footsteps reads like a modern day fairy tale. Anela doesn't have to overcome many hurdles as she gathers more and more information about the father she never knew; in fact, there were plot points that made Anela's journey somewhat sugar coated. This story was not so much about the mysteries of the past so much as it was a collection of too-good-to-be-true moments. If only life were as easy to figure out as Anela's experiences revealed. It isn't that this was a bad book; it's just that there's nothing to set it apart from any other average story.

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