Have
you ever come to the end of a book or a series and felt like you were saying
goodbye to a friend? That’s how I felt
when I realized that They Danced On is
the final book in The Darling Family series. This has been one of my favorite series of
all time, and I eagerly waited for the release of each new book. It’s hard even to describe why the Darling
family is so appealing. These books aren’t
full of mystery, suspense or even romance.
They’re basically just the tale of a family. They love each other, but
are far from perfect. Throughout the
series we’ve seen them struggle, fight, fall in love, deal with disappointment
and heartache, and ultimately triumph with the care and support of each
other. They Danced On brings the story full circle as they face their hardest
battles yet.
Jane
Darling is the matriarch of this big, crazy family and she has loved Leander
for most of her life. When he faces a
serious illness, Jane can only cling to faith that he will be miraculously
healed. But her denial his condition only
hurts Leander. It takes all of her
children working together (and perhaps a little Divine Intervention) to help
her see that her husband needs her support now more than ever. Meanwhile, Laura is fighting her own battles
in her new home in Arizona. She went
there for a fresh start after dealing with substance abuse, but when her new
life begins to crumble, Laura has no one to turn to, and her old addictions
come calling again. Only a tragedy will
bring her to her knees. Nick and Ivy are
also having problems with their adopted son, Hammer, and some new anger issues
that have arisen with him. Amy and Mitch
are slowly building a friendship until the day he’s been one-year sober and
they can begin dating. Justice and Sephy
are happily serving in Africa as a veterinarian and a nurse/midwife, but they
have trials of their own ahead, too. The
Darlings will face all of these problems head-on with the same courage and
determination that they’ve always had—and with the love and support of family.
While
I hate to see this series end, I think this book was the perfect way to
complete the Darlings’ story. And even
though we thought some of the characters got their happy ending in the precious
books, they aren’t finished yet. Real
life doesn’t always have happy endings, and some of the Darlings will find that
out. I guess that’s part of the appeal
of this series. The Darling family could
be your family, or your neighbors, or people from your church. None of them are perfect, but they’re always
there for each other.
This
book has a lot of happy and sad moments, and even some heartbreaking ones. The epilogue is literally one of the best
endings I’ve ever read. I actually
closed the book and cried. The only
negative thing I can say is that I wish this book had more of Sephy, since she’s
my favorite character, but that’s just personal preference, and not a true
negative. I dare you to read The Darling Family series and not fall in love with their
family. However, definitely don’t start
here! You absolutely MUST begin with All Right Here and Better All the Time. Fortunately
for me, I love the cover art on all of these books, so they earned a place on
my physical shelf instead of the digital one!
Even
though The Darling Family has ended, I
truly hope that Carre Armstrong Gardner will write many more books in the
future. I plan to read them all! I love her style, and how she writes about every
day, ordinary things in a way that makes them seem extraordinary. I highly recommend
this wonderful series.
Happy
reading!
Lyndsie
I
received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this
review. All opinions are my own and a
favorable review was not required.
Wow, Lyndsie, this is one of the nicest reviews I've ever gotten for any of my books: thank you so much! This part: "It’s hard even to describe why the Darling family is so appealing. These books aren’t full of mystery, suspense or even romance. They’re basically just the tale of a family." ...is exactly what I was aiming for. To me, there are few stories more fascinating than those about the ordinary lives of ordinary people. And your kind words about the Epilogue made my day. Again, thank you!
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