Book Review: The Six Gifts – Part 1: Secrets

When I first saw the title of this novel, The Six Gifts – Part 1: Secrets, I wondered what it could be about. A memoir? A self-help book? Fiction? So it is fiction and actually of the magical realism genre and I loved it! I definitely got hooked on the book and wanted to keep reading to see what would happen. Now I’m going to have to get my hands on the 2nd book to see what happens! So what is the book about? Keep reading to find out!

The Six Gifts follows Olivia, a woman in her 50s, who after a difficult childhood has now been married for over 30 years to her husband Marco. Lately, her marriage has felt stagnant, even strained, after a freak accident at their home poisoned both her and her husband leaving them with health issues and having to relocate to Vermont. The novel flips back and forth between present day and the past to allow the readers to learn more about Olivia’s past and how it connects to the present.

What jumpstarts the story is Olivia learning that her high school boyfriend back in Colorado has died. She decides to road trip across the country to pay her respects and to go back to where she grew up since she hasn’t been back since her 20s. As she travels and while she’s in Colorado things, “secrets”, begin to reveal themselves and unfold. When Olivia was very young, she almost drowned and died, but was saved. Olivia has always wondered “the why”. Why was she saved? The answer begins to reveal itself to her over the course of the novel and up to pretty much the last few pages actually! While staying in Colorado, Olivia befriends and stays with an old, Italian woman who seems to know everything and can cure all Olivia’s weird health ailments. She seems to have magic. Olivia doesn’t question it – Mrs. Capricci is just magical and comforting and just what Olivia needed in her life.

I won’t give away “the why” but I will tell you that it is part of a much larger picture because everything you think this novel is about is really just setting up for a future story. Hence why I need to read the 2nd book!

I really enjoyed this novel and if you’re in to fiction books with a touch of magic and adventure and a side of healing then check this out!

*This book was sent to me complimentary, but all opinions are my own.*