Kindle Edition Amazon Joy Lynn Goddard Category:  Women Publisher: Joy Lynn Goddard Type: Fiction Pages: 353 Copyright: July 23, 2019 ISBN-13: 9780973621662 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Some skeletons are best left in the closet, or are they? Lauren Prescott’s family secrets were buried long before she was born, during the sixties era when her great-grandparents took in a runaway girl from an Indian residential school. Her ailing grandfather, who was a teenager back then, now longs to find the girl—Rose Hill—to right a wrong before he dies. He’s ashamed of how he treated her because he recoiled from the racist climate of colonialism of the time. Haunted by the past, Lauren risks everything to dig up the truth for her grandfather—even her life! Excerpt Though he probably couldn't see me in the dark window, I crouched down to watch him over the sill. Whatever he was involved in, I wanted no part of it. He dug into the ground for a long time, the pile of earth beside him growing. Then he dragged something out of the pit. Oh, God—no!

Fantastic
This is a powerful story in so many ways. Not only is a really gripping story, it is a raw look at the horrors of history. There is also a story of love, as well as one of resilience, and one of dark family secrets. Pulling off any of these stories would have been a wonderful feat, but to have the layers is really phenomenal. When it came to all of the secrets I was utterly blown away. Some you could see, but it was the ones deep in the shadows that really held the most punch. Brilliantly done, important topics, highly recommenced.

An All-to-Real Fiction Story
After learning about her grandfather’s, Albert Cowden, failing health, budding journalist, Lauren Prescott and her mother, spend the summer at the Cowden’s residence. But when Lauren arrives, her grandfather has more than just household duties planned for her at the sprawling 6000 square foot lakeside home. Albert wants Lauren to find his long-lost love, Rose Hill, an indigenous girl he fell in love with when he was in high school. Armed with nothing but Rose’s diary and the stories her grandfather has told her, Lauren has a mystery to unravel. What became of this young woman who’d once saved her grandfather’s life and then escaped the abuse she suffered at a residential school? And what other secrets lie hidden?

It has been some time that I’ve read a story that I could not put down, that made me angry, that had me utter “Wow!” at the end of chapters, and that brought tears to my eyes. Moonshadow is that story. Though a work of fiction by author, Joy Lynn Goddard, the story about the suffering, abuse, and mistreatment of indigenous peoples in Canada at residential schools is all too real.

This is a well-written, fast paced novel, with characters you will love and others you will hate. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, turning the pages, as you learn the truth. I highly recommend this book.

A riveting and Important Story
What I really appreciated about “Moonshadow” is that it’s not only a riveting thriller/mystery, but it’s a literary work that deals with subjects that many people are, unfortunately, ignorant of, whether willingly or not, and that aspect adds even more value to an already riveting story. Told from multiple points of view and two parallel timelines, “Moonshadow” reveals dark family secrets and helps characters discover the truth about themselves and others. When Lauren, a young girl dreaming of a career as a journalist, arrives to help her elderly and ailing grandfather Albert, she has no idea what she is about to uncover concerning his past and a mysterious girl Rose, whom he calls the love of his life and who has mysteriously disappeared many years ago. But it’s Rose’s diary that Lauren comes across that will grip at your heart and immerse you into a horrifying world of prejudice and bigotry that the Mohawk people had to deal with and the abuse the young children (Rose among them) had to suffer at the hands of the “good Christians.” At times, it was heartbreaking to read, but the more I read, the more I realized how important such untold stories are, and how we must read and talk more about the dark aspects of our past to ensure that the bigotry and hatred don’t have a place in today’s world. Brilliant storytelling, important social issues, and a wonderful conclusion to the story make “Moonshadow” a real must-read. Highly recommended to everyone!