Read This Book!

Have I told you lately how I l-o-v-e being a librarian? Do you want to know what I especially love? Choosing the books and reading them FIRST! Before the cover is bent, before the pages are crinkled, before the new book smell completely disappears!

I purchased "The Will of Wisteria" by Denise Hildreth for the church library a couple of weeks ago (along with a bunch of others, I promise you!) and took it to Falls Creek to read during 'naptime' and before bed. As cooks, we don't have much downtime, but reading before going to sleep relaxes me. I don't feel like the day is completed until I've read a bit!

Unfortunately for me, "The Will of Wisteria" was so good, so enthralling, so captivating, so, so, so, page-turningly wonderful that I was not relaxed and I kept reading and reading far beyond when I was supposed to! I read until the other cooks clattered pots so loudly I felt guilty! I read before bed with my little booklight on my bottom bunk until my legs were twitchy from tiredness!

So, about the book:
Clayton Wilcott spent most of his time as a father ignoring his kids. So when he 'got religion' a few short years before he died and after the children were grown, it was too late for him to have any spiritual influence on them and the kids had pretty much shut him out of their lives. When he dies and the children are gathered for the reading of the will, they expect to hear that their father's fortune is divided equally among them. Imagine their surprise when they discover that each one of them is going to have to complete a year-long journey of discovery and sacrifice to receive their inheritance.

Jeffrey is the oldest. He is an arrogant plastic surgeon, spending his days enhancing and improving upon Charleston's most beautiful women and spending his nights sampling the fruits of his labor. He's on his third marriage with one child from each wife. He has no relationship with his children--doesn't know how and doesn't know he should have one.

Elizabeth is a real estate lawyer. She alone of the children has followed in the footsteps of her dad's career. She is competitive and successful, driven to be the best in her field. She doesn't want anyone to know her secret--that she is constantly afraid. Afraid of failure and desertion. So she refuses to allow anyone close to her and deludes herself into thinking her independence will keep her free from hurt.

Mary Catherine was her dad's little girl. Although she felt the sting of her father's inattention as a child, she had continued to spend time with him. She travels and shops incessantly, trying frantically to escape the feeling of abandonment and loneliness she felt as a child.

Will is the baby. He is on his sixth year of college and relies on charm and money to get what he wants. He spends most of his time drunk but is the life of the party at his fraternity because of his car, his money and his party hardy attitude.

Can these four narcissistic people fulfill their father's wishes in order to receive their fortune? They have a long, rocky road ahead of them, but possibly, with the help of some unlikely individuals, the siblings will gain their rightful inheritance.

Read this book--you will laugh, you will cry, you will look for a sequel (there isn't one) when you finally finish it in the middle of the night!