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    The Butterfly House
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    The Butterfly House
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    The Butterfly House
    Ebook324 pages5 hours

    The Butterfly House

    By Marcia Preston

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook



    "I was fifteen when my mother finally told me about my father. She didn't mean to. She meant to keep it a secret forever. If she'd succeeded, it might have saved us all."

    Roberta and Cynthia are destined to be best friends forever. When both your fathers are missing, you have a lot in common. Unable to cope with her alcoholic mother, Roberta finds Cynthia's house the perfect, carefree refuge.

    Cynthia's mother keeps beautiful rare butterflies on her sunporch and she's everything Roberta wishes her own mother could be. But just like the delicate creatures they nurture, the women are living in a hothouse.

    Years later, a hauntingly familiar stranger knocks at Roberta Dutreau's door, forcing her to begin a journey back to her childhood. But is she ready to know the truth about what happened to her, her best friend Cynthia and their mothers that tragic night ten years ago?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarlequin MIRA
    Release dateApr 1, 2012
    ISBN9781459225640
    Unavailable
    The Butterfly House

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    Reviews for The Butterfly House

    4/5

    36 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Pretty good. I got a little tired of the characters, but liked them better by the end.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of the friendship between four women. When Bobbie is young she meets Cincy and they become good friends as they realize they have something in common. Both are being raised by their mothers on their own. Bobbie spends much time at Cincy and her mother Lenora's house, looking for the love and affection she is missing out on from her mother Ruth who is a depressed alcoholic. Lenora is a lepidopterist and Bobbie becomes fascinated by, and drawn into this world of butterflies. She becomes very close to Lenora and this causes problems for both Cincy, and Ruth who sees this relationship with Lenora as something other than what it is. As the two girls become older jealousys and misunderstandings pull them apart, and one dramatic night an event occurs that will change their lives for ever. Years later a stranger appears on Bobbies doorstep and the events of that night are brought to the fore again leaving Bobbie with very difficult decisions to make. Is she ready to find out what really happened that night?This book is partly written in the present, and partly in the past as we are informed of the events that have lead up to the present. The two stories fit very well together and the characters are very well drawn. It shows well the complicated relationships between the women, their misunderstandings and jealousies. At times very moving and very sad. Well worth a read.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      My goodness me a book really has not moved me like this in a very very long time. I got to the end twenty pages and I just could not stop crying it was so so sad. Although I also have to add there is a hope and a coming together in the end.The book is about Roberta and Cynthia who are best friends from school and the relationship they each have with their mothers but the main character is Roberta or Bobbie as she is known in her youth. Cynthia' mother Lenora keeps beautiful, rare butterflies in her sunporch and she's everything Roberta wishes her own mother could be. Roberta's mother Ruth is an alcoholic and this is why Roberta grows so close with Lenora and Cynthia with terrible consequences. When I started this book it did'nt seem very special but sometimes you just have to read to the end to really get it. Highly recommended good read - excellent.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked some parts and disliked others. Overall, I felt the book could have been much better. The themes of mothers and daughters and friendship in the face of alcoholism and childhood trauma bring this novel together. Roberta is struggling to overcome the traumatic events of her adolescence and to repair the relationships damaged by a long ago crime. Roberta's struggles are compelling and the resolution of this novel offered the best one could hope for the characters of this novel.
    • 2/5
      Meh....okay story, okay characters...just nothing really grabbed me about this one. I enjoy stories in which people are trying to overcome their past, or discover a truth about their past that turns their present upside down...I didn't dislike this book, just didn't necessarily like it either. I would skip it.
    • 5/5
      This book stared a bit slow but about 2-3 chapters in, I was HOOKED! I was drawn to the characters and was engrosssed in the storyline. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I do wish Cincy's character was elaborated on more thoroughly. There were times when she was described looking a certain way or acting a certain way but no explanation why (with the exception of the very end of the book). Other than that, great book!
    • 1/5
      I really did not like this book. Trite, sentimental, ridiculous situations. Awful.
    • 4/5
      A moving portrait of mother-daughter relationships with tragic consequences.
    • 4/5
      Lonely Bobbie Lee finds refuge from her alcoholic mother at her best friend's house, Rockhaven. The house was colored by the butterflies that Cincy's mother, Lenore, studied. As best friends the girls shared all their secrets until adolescence caused the friendship to unravel, leading to tragedy. Now a decade later, Bobbie is still trying to make sense of the past before she can move forward.
    • 4/5
      This story of living life on life's terms is powerful. The choices we make do have an effect on our lives and our loved ones lives. Bobbie battles the choices of her parents and her own and must come to terms with them all.