The Other Side of Heartache

by Sarah Jo Smith

Grace’s well-ordered world shatters when she loses her unborn child and her mother within a few months. Summoned to her childhood home to sort through Penny’s belongings, the timing couldn’t be worse. Grieving over her losses and exhausted from a demanding teaching schedule, she worries that her marriage is collapsing under the pressure. While packing her mother’s closet, Grace discovers a box filled with mysterious keepsakes and old diaries written in Penny’s hand and takes them home. After reading pages filled with typical musings of a teenage girl from a generation ago, she stumbles upon a dark secret and is devastated to learn that what she believed her whole life about her family was based on lies.

As Grace digs beneath the Rose family tree, she unearths more than one skeleton buried there. All the while, she must endure the wrath of her grandmother, Eleanor, who is determined to block her efforts to find out what happened when Penny was seventeen, as well as the underlying cause of her premature death. Yet Eleanor harbors a well-kept secret of her own, one more deceitful and calculating than Penny’s sin. Grace’s journey through an emotional labyrinth of passion, shame, and manipulation not only leads to more shocking revelations but also changes the course she had mapped for her life.

Through a story told in alternating voices between the past and present where old morals and double standards from the historical 1950s and ‘60s clash with modern day values, Grace must decide if it’s worth taking an unforeseen risk to reaffirm her belief in the power of love. BOOK GROUP GUIDE INCLUDED.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2013

About the author

Sarah Jo Smith (Sally Parido) is the author of contemporary women’s novels The Other Side of Heartache, a semi-finalist in The Kindle Book Review 2013 Best Indie Book Awards for Literary Fiction, and her newest release, Entangled Loyalties (2016). A lifelong reader, she’s had a book in her hands since her grandmother Rosie taught her to read at the age of five. Victorian literature was a favorite genre of study and she is a big fan of North American writers such as Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Anne Tyler. Two novels that have influenced her greatly are The Bluest Eye and East of Eden.

Her novels delve into the female journey and the healing power of family. She writes stories where women characters face unexpected challenges and, through their struggles, emerge stronger and with a better understanding of themselves. She believes women will never stop reading books when they can relate to characters and gain insight into their own lives. She hopes her novels are those kinds of books.

She was born in Los Angeles and raised in a high desert town in southern California. A former English teacher, she holds a bachelor’s degree in English from California Lutheran University, a single subject teaching credential in English, and a master’s degree in education from Santa Clara University. She has stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul books for the Adopted Soul, My Resolution, Teens Talk High School, and Say Goodbye to Stress.

As the mother of three adults, Sarah Jo lives in picturesque Bend, Oregon with her husband, Gregg, of 35 years. When she’s not reading or writing, hiking or snowshoeing in the Cascade Mountains, you’ll find her on the pickleball courts.

Please visit Sarah Jo Smith:

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LinkedIn: Sarah Jo Smith (author)

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a relatable story to many people that I know in that we grew up in part of the book's era. You think that this story is only going to be one leg of a person's life, but it turns out to have many twists and turns.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read In awhile. It is a story of mothers and daughters and family relationships. It involves understanding and forgiveness, while dealing with double standards and moral issues. The story is both sad and uplifting.

[Barb Wittwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book about courage to make hard choices and unselfishness of giving a child up for adoption

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Power of love

Beautiful story told by a mother and written in diaries found by her daughter after her death. The Other Side oh Heartache is truly love. Found this book to be so full of love and selflessness. A must read

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so very good. Mother died and her daughter found all her diaries.

[Julie Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too long. Did not need to add so many sub-plots.

[Edith S · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book. I couldn't put it down. The story starts off with Grace giving birth to a stillborn boy. Her heart is broken and she seeks solace with her mother. But life gives Grace another blow, soon enough, her mother dies. It was felt that she died of a broken heart (which later on, with the aid of the diaries that her mother kept and Grace finds, is corroborated. Dying of a broken heart is actually real. It is called Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy (this condition was recently recognized and named by the American Heart Association, and I happen to be a two-time survivor, so the book spoke to me even deeper.

Anyway, I digress. I couldn't put this book down. I just hungered to discover and find how Grace uncovers her family skeletons. And each discovery, led to another discovery. Each discovery led to deep thoughts about our social norms and how we can ruin people's lives with prejudgment.

I won't say much because I don't want to spoil the reader. Just bear in mind that this book is like the Maxwell House coffee commercial: It was good to the last drop.

[Collins Hemingway]

Fascinating look at adoption from multiple angles. A well-constructed story involving decent, interesting, and flawed characters struggling with what it means to be family and how to create one. There are several compelling and well-drawn protagonists, and the two antagonists are equally real and believable, with their own reasons to behave as they do. (I grew up in a neighborhood full of perfect and perfectly uptight 1950s mothers, including my own.) Nothing contrived here: Everyone has to make hard choices about the difficult and sometimes impossible situations that life throws their way, and those choices create painful conflict that requires an interesting and thoughtful book to resolve. Chapter 11 is as sad as anything I have ever read, and other chapters bring forth tears of joy or sadness--often both at the same time.

[Judy Escoto]

The first of Sarah Jo Smith's books, I read with great interest as I went to school with Sarah and we were both in Journalism together on the Jet Gazette Staff all thru high school. She was the editor of our school paper so it's not a surprise that she is now writing novels. I liked this book as it is set in our town so everything was very familiar for me and I knew exactly where these spots were that she was describing. This novel tells of the sorrow of having to give up a child for adoption and the grief it caused for the Mother all her life. She writes about it in her diary of which is found after her death and what insues after that. Don't want to give away the story line but if you were adopted or gave up a child for adoption or you adopted a child this book will help you see what everyone involved goes thru in these situations.

[Angel **Book Junkie** · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heart-breaking story and a VERY emotional read. While this was surely a page turner there were parts that felt overdone and overplayed. I mean it is truly a book about heartache I just felt that there were quite a few places that could have been left out to allow the reader to connect more with the other characters. There were so many stories wrapped up into one I think that as a reader I lost some of the other stories.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a tender story of a child's discovery of her mother's past. I loved the back and forth between Grace and her mother's journal entries. The grandmother was amazingly cold hearted and unforgiving and therefore alone and not liked. Some teary moments for me as the wounds of the loss of my mother more than 6 years ago and the loss of my first child more than 20 years ago never completely heal. I felt empathy for them both. A refreshing change of pace from my usual. Thanks for a good read.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story about loss, relationships, and learning to move on... many absolutely appalling typos/errors, though - "dust moats," "Bedtime for Francis," "Payton Place," "Marilynn Monroe," and "MacDonald's," to name a few. Ouch. One also wonders about the ethics of a teacher adopting her student's baby. Nonetheless, a decent read.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of a woman who loses her child (still born) and mother in the same year. While cleaning out her mother's closet, she uncovers books which uncover a whole lot of history. The idea of the book was interesting and at times, reading it was too. However; I felt it got very drawn out and a bit corny for my taste.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book.

[Lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book for free on Kindle and read it in 2 days. It was really good. I loved the characters and all of the references to life in the 60's and 70's. A very thought provoking story.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and an easy read. Gives a new perspective on pregnancy, adoption and what those that place their baby for adoption go through. Very good.

[Corissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. A beautiful story about the true love of mothers.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page turner for sure.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read!!! So good!!!

[Lanie Taljaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept me to the pages and read very easily

[Leigh Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular - A must read

The author brought the reader right along the story. You get caught up and feel for each character. Was very hard to put it down.

[Alison]

kindle 344

[Melanie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat predictable but still an enjoyable story. I shed a few tears while reading it.

[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. It got a little long but I enjoyed it.