I had a really hard time getting into this story, not reading it mind you. I honestly feel it's well written. My problem was I couldn't seem to connect with Autumn, I tried, I wanted to, I did feel badly for her but it just wasn't enough to make that emotional connection that I like to have with a main character when reading a book.

Much of this story is told through the perspective of  a 12 year old girl fighting to keep her world from being upended with the loss of her Great-Pop, a man who was a strong and constant presence in her life.  Autumn is a 12 year old dealing with a lot, especially for a 12 year old. Unfortunately what I couldn't get past was the fact that to me at times she seemed to be a rather selfish child and therein lies the problem.  Autumn is a child, I on the other hand am not and it took me until I was over half way through this book to remember that 12 year olds don't have the maturity or life experience of someone who is 50+ years old and if they do then there's something wrong with one or both of us.  Once I got my mind around this fact I began to view Autumn and her selfishness a little differently and after giving consideration to my own behaviour at that age and that of my child and godchildren and other 12 year olds I've known, I realized that Autumn really wasn't any different from many children her age.

For Autumn it was her Great-Pop, for me it was my Grandmother. That one person who touches our life, who gives us a love that is constant and unending while teaching us what it means to love and give of ourselves.  This was the connection that helped me to see Autumn as what she was just a typical young girl trying to make sense where there just didn't seem to be any and in the end to realize that maybe my problem hadn't been that I didn't relate strongly enough to this character but that maybe I saw too much of a me that's been buried for a very long time and still misses that one person enough to cry for their loss. 

In spite of my less than stellar start with this book I found that for about the last 30% or so of this book I was very emotionally involved and ended up giving this book 4 stars becauseTommy and Roy's story did tug at me emotionally and was very much the reason that I kept reading this story.  Theirs was a beautifully told story about a love that wasn't to be but in spite of the odds it somehow managed transcend time and life itself to find a way. 

No there weren't any tears but there was a steady ache in my chest as I read on and desperately wished for an ending that wouldn't happen and instead was given an ending that worked and left me feeling satisfied and pleased that I had stuck with it and read this book.

I am shattered by this book, and so happy I got to read it.

The first half was thrilling, loving, mindblowing, and so gorgeously confusing!

Then all the pieces are slowly worked together into a whole tapestry of interwoven lives, all seen through the wild and amazing eyes of a young girl.

Absolutely mesmerizing, and smashing language to boot.

There is so much love in here that it almost flows off the pages, oh how I love to read about great-grandfathers who have made a difference. Here, storytelling has a way of taking wings and flying into your dreams at night. Here, fantasy becomes imagination, and then dreams happen, that go on to become reality. Or not.

Of course, you need to love family, and be the kind of reader who doesn’t get upset when she squeals in joy or gushes forth in amazing amounts of tears. Because there was plentiful of both.

This book is going to stay with me for a long time.

There is hope and emotions and happiness and sadness and bisexuality and love and understanding and… Great-Grand Fathers!

Well. Go read it, eh?

Because I find myself crying again, as I’m writing this review.

*** 

A copy of this book was given to me by the publisher, Dreamspinner Press. A positive review was not promised in exchange.