When Marielle marries Carson, she doesn't just move across the country to live with him and his two children, she moves into the house where he lived with his first wife, who passed away several years prior. Holly Oak, a beautiful manor from the Civil War era, is known as a mysterious home, where there once lived a Civil War spy, where the parlor was used as an emergency hospital, and where the ghost of supposed spy Susannah is said to roam. Will Marielle be able to find out the truth about the past into order to be happy in her present?
Though a slow read at times, A Sound Among the Trees is a beautiful tale of the consequences of one generation upon another. Alternating between Adelaide and Marielle's views, the reader is given glimpses into the secrets the house holds and what future it may give. While Adelaide holds onto a bitter past in which her daughter ran off and left her with an infant child, Marielle awkwardly tries to find a niche in a house that isn't hers.
The story picks up about halfway through when Marielle is given the letters Susannah wrote to her cousin. These letters show her role in the Civil War. (I don't want to give away too much of the surprise.) Meissner could have written a book about Susannah. In fact, while the letters add to the story, they give the reader a much more interesting character than Marielle, which in turn, made me care little about whether Marielle ended up happy or not.
The author also touched on depression and hinted at it being in the family tree. I wish she would have delved more into that. I also wish we would have seen Carson and Marielle interact more. I think that would have given Marielle a reason to move and perhaps would have made her a more interesting character.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and the journey of a house's occupants.
I received this book in exchange for my reviews. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
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