The Charm Bracelet: A Novel

by Viola Shipman

Overview

Lose yourself to the magic of The Charm Bracelet.

Through an heirloom charm bracelet, three women will rediscover the importance of family and a passion for living as each charm changes their lives.

On her birthday each year, Lolly’s mother gave her a charm, along with the advice that there is nothing more important than keeping family memories alive, and so Lolly’s charm bracelet would be a constant reminder of that love.

Now seventy and starting to forget things, Lolly knows time is running out to reconnect with a daughter and granddaughter whose lives have become too busy for Lolly or her family stories.

But when Arden, Lolly’s daughter, receives an unexpected phone call about her mother, she and granddaughter Lauren rush home. Over the course of their visit, Lolly reveals the story behind each charm on her bracelet, and one by one the family stories help Lolly, Arden, and Lauren reconnect in a way that brings each woman closer to finding joy, love, and faith.

A compelling story of three women and a beautiful reminder of the preciousness of family, Viola Shipman's The Charm Bracelet is a keepsake you’ll cherish long after the final page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250071330
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/03/2017
Series:	The Heirloom Novels
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

VIOLA SHIPMAN is a pen name for award-winning memoirist Wade Rouse. His novels, including The Charm Bracelet, The Hope Chest, The Summer Cottage, and The Heirloom Garden, have been translated into over a dozen languages and become international bestsellers. Rouse lives in Michigan and writes regularly for People, Good Housekeeping and Coastal Living. He is a contributor for All Things Considered.

Editorial Reviews

"Rich in character and story, The Charm Bracelet is utterly charming!" —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Readers will be charmed by the characters, most of all by kooky but wise Lolly, who teaches her stressed-out daughter and granddaughter lessons in life and love.” —Good Housekeeping

"I loved this book. It is the quintessential summer read about love, life, and finding yourself." —Ryley Reads

From the Publisher

2016-01-20
Three generations of women share the tradition of wearing charm bracelets to honor the big moments of their lives. When Arden and her daughter, Lauren, take a vacation from Chicago to visit Arden's mother, Lolly, a lifelong resident of a small lake resort town, they realize she's having memory issues. When she's diagnosed with an early stage of dementia, they decide to extend their vacation to help her figure out how to stay in her own home as long as possible. Arden is a frustrated writer working as an online editor who has let life roll over her too many times, while Lauren is a talented artist taking college business courses, due mainly to her mother's pressure to be practical. When the three women wind up spending the summer together, Lolly shares much of her life story through the many charms on her bracelet, a family tradition passed down from her grandmother and now to her own granddaughter. As Lolly feels the pressure of sharing her stories and memories with her daughter and granddaughter while she can still access them, Arden begins to reassess her own choices, made mostly from fear, lack, and inadequacy, and reconsider the path she has sent her daughter on, which doesn't seem to be making her happy. Debut novelist Shipman—a pen name chosen by memoirist Wade Rouse (It's All Relative, 2011, etc.) in homage to his grandmother—pulls out all the emotional bells and whistles here; his book reads like a fictionalized guide to living the good life ("Live! Love! Laugh!") and checks all the boxes—family, friends, God, love, and simple living—designed to warm the heart and fill the tear ducts. Smooth writing, unabashed sentimentality: if it sometimes feels a little forced or relentless, where's the harm?

Kirkus Reviews