Book Review: The Muir House, by Mary DeMuth

I love it when I find an author who mesmerizes me with words. Who chooses each phrase deliberately. Who paints pictures with sentences you won't find anywhere else.

Mary DeMuth is that kind of author.

I read The Muir House in a day, sucked into the life of Willa Muir, a young interior decorator struggling to fill a blank year in her childhood memories. So many things ride on the outcome--her potential marriage, possible reconciliation with her abusive mother, and her pressing need to feel whole.

Her obsession with discovering the truth threatens to destroy the beautiful things in her life.

But Willa's fiance, Hale, suggests that maybe she doesn't need to know. Maybe she's whole just the way she is.

Willa returns to her hometown of Rockwall, Texas, to the mortuary-turned-bed-and-breakfast where she grew up, to her mother stricken with Alzheimers. The more she searches for answers, the more questions pop up. The property's caretaker knows all the secrets, but won't say a word. Anything Willa's mother might share is locked in her stricken mind. And the reappearance of Willa's first love complicates her search even more.

This is a beautifully told, Southern story, full of quirky characters and the hometown we wish we had. And how a search for answers can change everything.

Highly recommended.

See the book trailer and read the first chapter here.

Read my review of DeMuth's $2.99 ebook, The 11 Secrets of Getting Published, here.