What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell

Quick review: What I Had Before You by Sarah Cornwell was a "barely looked at plot because I really liked the cover download." Shallow, I know. Maybe not to cover artists but when it comes to picking out a book, I like to know what the plot is all about.  Some days it just doesn't work out that way. 

The premise from Amazon:

In What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell, a woman must face the truth about her past in this luminous, evocative literary novel of parents and children, guilt and forgiveness, memory and magical thinking, set in the faded, gritty world of the New Jersey Shore.

Olivia was only fifteen the summer she left her hometown of Ocean Vista. Two decades later, on a visit with her children, her nine-year-old son Daniel, recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, disappears. Olivia’s search for him sparks tender and painful memories of her past—of her fiercely loving and secretive mother, Myla, an erratic and beautiful psychic, and the discovery of heartbreaking secrets that shattered her world.

I loved it. I am biased, of course, as I live in NJ and found "Ocean Vista" to be a mix of all the shore towns I have ever visited and loved. I felt much admiration,  pity and disdain  for Olivia as equally with  her mother but with most mental disorders, readers emotions are a bit more temporary when one climbs through a story of troubled relationships. I am totally  into the mother-daughter books (think Janet Fitch and Dani Shapiro, two of my favorite authors who both excel on this subject.) And Cornwell did not disappoint. 

Borrow it. 

(though you may find it on Kindle, Nook, iBooks for a steal)