What readers think of The Hand that First Held Mine, plus links to write your own review.

It was very hard for me to get into this book and it was difficult to stay focused on what I was reading. Some of the scenes were too descriptive for me. The characters were interesting and would bring lots of discussion for book clubs.

This story deals with two women,Lexie a writer and Elina a painter separated in time 50 years living in non-traditional families in London. I enjoyed the beautiful descriptive language, but could not connect to the characters. The story contains flashbacks and family secrets but just not compelling enough to hold my interest.

It took me about 90 pages of reading to get involved in this book, then I was very interested in the story line. However, I thought the writing was inconsistent. Sometimes it was too wordy and dragged on. The parts describing how hard it was for both main characters, Lexie and Elina,to care for their babies was way too lengthy. The manner in which the two separate stories in different time periods were finally connected created an intriguing ending.