Honestly, it’s Once In A Blue Moon when I get the chance to read a book… so when this book came my to review, I jumped at the chance! The irony was too perfect.

I read Once In A Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge on the train to NYC in early October to meet my sister. I had no idea what the book was going to be about, but the fact that the book just happens to be about the power and the life of two sisters… well, it warmed my heart.

Once In A Blue Moon is a beautiful winding tale of the journey of two sisters who were separated from each other at a very young age, and then them reuniting as adults. I saw myself in Lindsay, the older sister. I related to her. I understood the love and patience and kindness and warmth and worry that she had for her sister. I felt it. One thing about Eileen’s writing is that you feel the words off the page. I literally had a pit in my stomach at certain points because emotionally I became so connected to these characters. That’s the mark and test of a good book… that, and you truly don’t want to put it down. You can’t put it down.

When Lindsay and Kerrie Ann become united as adults, I couldn’t help but root for their relationship to become everything that a sister-relationship should and could be. It was also amazing to see the differences in which they grew up… Eileen did an amazing job at taking one sister and then taking the other, and having them have complete 180 degree different childhood/teenage years of upbringing. Honestly, it made me think about “real life” and the many, many children who must and do fall through the cracks of the system like Kerrie Ann’s character. It made me sad.

But the heart warming part of this story for me was seeing the bond between sisters, something that is boundless and impossible to explain, even for Lindsay and Kerrie Ann who didn’t see each other (or in Kerrie Ann’s case, know about each other) for years, still be there within them. A bond that only a woman who has a sister knows. And as you see these two clash when they first come together, you root for their relationship to grow… you know good is there, they just need to discover it on their own and in each other.

And the love grows… all through the love for a little girl, Kerrie Ann’s little girl, who is the reason these two come together in the first place. Kerrie Ann needs Lindsay’s help to get her daughter back. And then it’s when you realize that Kerrie Ann truly does not want history to repeat itself, as once is enough in a lifetime.

Love. Happiness. Anger. Celebration. Growth. And change. The cycle of life.

It’s all in Once In A Blue Moon. And you know what… it’s Once In A Blue Moon you truly find a book that you want to know what happens after you read the very last page.