Mary Clare Lockman - They're Always With You review

So I dove into this book after being asked to review it by the author.  It was an interesting read.  It wasn't in my normal wheelhouse but the synopsis sounded good.  I enjoyed this story, reading it between other books, but it wasn't one that grabbed my attention and held on.  It was a little slow for me. But I still enjoyed the book.  

Colette is in the 6th grade, born in 1958.  The time was a lot different back then and the experiences of her family was that during WWI and the Great Depression.  Life was simpler than today.  Colette enjoys spending time with her friend Sally and playing basketball at school.  Being an only child, she sees and hears things in her family and has started to be more inquisitive about these things.  And because of a project in class, she has to ask her Gramps about his history and where he came from.

The family starts to tell Colette things she never knew before and some things are a complete shock to her but other stories fascinate her.  This was a coming of age in a family story and it was sometimes sad but endearing.  Enjoyable read.

Colette McGiver is a girl who loves her Gramps, her parents, her Aunt Florence, her best friend Sally, basketball, Sunday dinners, and a whole lot more. There's just one thing that bothers her, and that's the certainty that her family is hiding a secret. Determined to uncover the shadows of her family's past, Colette comes to learn that joy and sorrow are , in the case of her beloved family, inextricably bound. In "They're Always With You" Mary Clare Lockman has written a charming, tender novel with a heroine you can't help but love.

-Alison McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of books of all ages