A review by micasreads
The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel

4.0

 

Author: Kristin Harmel 

Started: September 21, 2024 

Finished: September 22, 2024 

Format: Print 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

 

Hope lives on Cape Cod and runs her family bakery. This was not the life she wanted but recently divorced, this is where she has landed. The plus side is that she gets to raise her daughter in the same areas as her grandmother's memory care facility.  Rose, Hope's grandmother, suffers from Alzheimer's and has sent Hope to Paris to find people she's never heard of. Hope realizes that her grandmother is not who she thought she was and she has a family she never knew existed. 

 

While this was a historical fiction that had elements of WWII, it was not centered there which was a nice change of pace. Rose is a sweet woman who did all she could to save her family and feels as if she has let them down. The interactions between Hope and her daughter make sense after a divorce where all the blame is placed on Hope. The storyline was not as jumpy as other historical fiction which was a nice change. A bonus was the pastry recipes sprinkled throughout the book. This was a wonderful book and I'm glad I finally read it.