Deceptive cover art

The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand looked like an innocuous summer read. Just look at the cover - bare feet walking in the surf, blue sky, and a bicycle. Safe you would think, but no. Sorry but SPOILER ALERT: what starts like a fun romantic read takes a turn for the worst. The main character discovers she's dying of cancer. She's failed to see the signs that she is sick and by the time it's discovered it's terminal.

Now normally this might not have upset me, but when I started to read this book my mother was battling cancer. Hilderbrand describes the sorrow that a mother has at leaving behind a daughter, and a daughter preparing to lose her mother. It was a kick in the gut. By the time I reached the end I was in floods of tears. Hilderbrand wrote a wonderful story about living, loving and dying and well worth the read. Just have tissues near by.

As I prepared to write this post I did a little research on the author and discovered that she was diagnosed with cancer one month before the publication of this book. (Read
about the author's own battle with cancer) I imagine it must have been a shock when the news came after she had completed her own research in order to write her novel. There is no way to prepare for such a diagnosis, but the more people share about their experiences with this disease, the more hope and courage others can gain for their own battles. My mom's doing great and we were very lucky the tumor was discovered, quite by accident, as early as it was. Lesson learned - go for check ups and seek medical attention when something doesn't seem right, or a problem doesn't clear up.