Echoes of Family by Barbara Claypole White published 27 September 2016

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Marianne Stokes left England at the age of seventeen after an accident that triggered her manic depression and a suicide attempt. Thirty years on, Marianne is living in North Carolina with her husband Darius and daughter Jade. She runs a successful recording studio and also helps vulnerable young women. After a car accident, where a woman looses her born child, Marianne’s mental health spirals out of control and she decides that she needs to go back to England and face the secrets and daemons of her past. What she didn’t expect was to bump into Gabriel, her first love, and now the vicar of Newton Rushford. Once there Marianne begins to spiral out of control and emotions are heightened as she faces up to the decisions she made as a teenager and their subsequent consequences.
This is a difficult read at times as it deals with bipolar and the effect it has not only Marianne it also those a round her. The subject is dealt with compassion, but at the same time brutal honesty. The characters are complex, all have their own issues from the past that they need to deal with. There is a varied cast from Gabriel the Vicar to Jade who had an abusive childhood before she ran away and Marianne took her in.
It is a well written emotional novel, but there are also humour and hope. It will certainly stay with you long after you finish the last page.