Book Review: The Favorite Daughter | Patti Callahan Henry

Emotional, heartfelt, and powerful—Patti Callahan Henry’s The Favorite Daughter is a story of the complexity of families, the anguish of loss, and the profound healing power of forgiveness.

About the Book | The Favorite Daughter

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop at Water’s End, here is a lush, heart-wrenching novel about the power of memory, the meaning of family, and learning to forgive.

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home–until she learns of her dad’s failing health.

Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family’s Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters’ rift. While Alzheimer’s slowly steals their father’s memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena’s own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

Review | The Favorite Daughter

Patti Callahan Henry has published quite a catalog of work, but this was actually the first book I have read by her. The story opens with the protagonist Lena walking in on one of the worst things imaginable on her wedding day. Panicked and devastated, Lena flees her hometown and moves to New York City, where she is a travel writer and goes by the name Colleen.

This is so much more than a betrayed-on-her-wedding-day novel. It begins at that point, but it is actually a story about a family and about regret, loss, forgiveness, and the power of love. Colleen does return home from New York nearly ten years after leaving when she receives a call from her brother Shane. Her brother is a beacon of support and peacemaking (he actually reminded me of my own brother in that way), staying steady through the fracture in their family, running the family pub in South Carolina, and taking care of their father, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

This was such an emotional book for me, having known loved ones who had Alzheimer’s. I really felt for this family as Lena and her sister struggle with their relationship and as Shane tries to keep the peace at home while keeping their pub afloat. I also really felt for their father as he tries to come to terms with the progression of his illness.

The family dynamics felt authentic and the emotions were raw. I am admittedly a crier, but I cried a lot through this one. It’s emotional and beautiful and touching. The theme of forgiveness is powerful throughout, and this is certainly a thought-provoking story. What are we able to forgive and move on from in the face of losing everything? How do we know whether to turn away or to stay?

A book that I won’t soon forget.

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Patti Callahan Henry

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels, including the historical fiction, BECOMING MRS. LEWIS – The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Now a USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the Globe and Mail bestseller. (writing as Patti Callahan-Historical Fiction).  In addition, she is the recipient of The Christy Award—A 2019 Winner “Book of the Year.”

A finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, an Indie Next Pick, an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year, Patti is published in numerous languages. Her articles and essays have appeared in Southern Living, PINK, Writer’s Digest, Garden and Gun, Portico Magazine, Love Magazine (UK), Red Magazine (UK), Atlanta Journal, Birmingham Magazine, and more.

Her essays can also be found in anthologies and collections such as Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy; Southern Writers Writing, and State of the Heart. Patti is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs, and women’s groups.

Growing up in Philadelphia as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Patti learned early the value of storytelling. At the age of twelve, her family moved to South Florida where Patti found the sanctuary of libraries and began her slow but steady journey into understanding the power of story to navigate confusing times in life.

Patti attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full time.

The mother of three children, she now lives in both Mountain Brook, Alabama and Bluffton, South Carolina with her husband.