Ascension of Larks by Rachel Linden

Ascension of Larks by Rachel Linden is simply a fabulous book about life.  Maggie met Marco in college and they formed a fast friendship.  So many things about them were similar and they just fit together in life.  Maggie's roommate in college was Lena and Lena was so very different from them but oddly enough they all worked and loved each other.  All 3 of them were incredibly smart and talented but when it was all said and done Maggie and Marco were driven and Lena, well Lena mostly wanted to be a mom and make the home a comfortable place to come home.  Marco and Lena married and Lena became mom to 3 children.  Maggie became Aunt Maggie and visited their summer home every August on the island.  Shockingly Marco then suddenly died in a drowning accident and threw their life into a tailspin.  Lena is in shock and is mostly unable to handle life and Maggie steps in to help her.  Then Lena finds out that she is deeply in debt because of a loan that Marco took out in business and she finds that she simply cannot take it any more.  Lena takes off in her car by herself and has a car accident.  She is alive but she is in a coma. Why didn't she at least slow down before hitting the concrete retaining wall.  The police ask that question but no one but Lena can answer it and she is in a coma.  Maggie and Lena's aunt have all that they can do to take care of the children and the house but what about the Marco's loans?  One day the kids and Maggie go to a museum about the island's history and find out that there is a "beckoning" practice on the island in which they have a ceremony to beckon the dead back home so that they could then go to heaven.  The children decide to beckon their dad back home but then they also decide to beckon their mom back home so that she will get well and come back home to them.

This book is spellbinding.  It easily holds the reader's attention. You just won't want to put it down.  Ms. Linden takes the reader's emotions and you feel the hurt of the widow, you feel the terror of not having any money to take care of debts that you didn't even know existed earlier.  The sadness of the children who don't know what to do when their father unexpectedly dies and quickly after that their mother is in an accident and is possibly facing death also.  The San Juan Island's old customs and ceremonies, will they work?  Will they help the kids get through this overwhelming grief?  I would recommend reading this book to any woman who enjoys reading. 
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.