![\"bitterwood](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/bitterwood-commons.jpg?resize=250%2C398&ssl=1\")
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A gripping tale\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mitchell interweaves tangled history of people and places and explores the way lives of real people can evolve into the stuff of legends over time in her engrossing time-travel historical debut. Tragic death of Emma Barker\u2019s young son leaves her depressed and completely dependent on antidepressants. While sorting through antiques purchased by the auction company she jointly owns with her ex-husband, Emma comes across a sapphire necklace and a box of love letters dating back to the turn of the century. As Emma reads the letters, she becomes obsessed with the sender of the letter. Her fascination with letters takes her first to a small town in rural Indiana and later to more than a century back in time. As Emma\u2019s life becomes entangled with Natalia Kappan, a beautiful, troubled woman, painful memories and horrendous secrets come to surface that threaten to destroy the sanity of both Emma and Natalia and leave lives of many innocent people in peril. The story\u2019s central mystery focuses on the tragic secrets associated with the troubled condition of Natalia in the past century, Emma\u2019s part in the haunted love story, the identity of the murderer who committed the vicious murder in the town, and final shocking revelations. But lives united by a shared experience of trauma and loss stay at the central core of the novel. Mitchell also explores \u201clove\u201d in its purest form\u2014both a romantic love and love between parents and children. Mitchell\u2019s plotting is excellent, and her finely sketched characters are easy to connect to and highly believable. Emma as a distraught mother is as convincing as Natalia with all her sufferings and her past demons. Little Joy brings absolute joy in the story. The suspense element is strong as Mitchell masterfully controls the flow of the story and keeps the tension high until the last page. Shocking revelations make their way throughout the story and keep the reader turning pages fast. The century old setting is vivid and makes the reader disappear inside the rural world of Indiana. The ending twist will come as a shock even to the dedicated time-travel buffs. The immaculate denouement is both astonishing and satisfying despite being a bit tangled. A touching and tense love story that will stay at the reader\u2019s mind for long. Highly recommended to fans of time travel as well historical fiction and mystery lovers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n