REVIEW: The Clover House by Henriette Lazaridis Power

An imaginative novel that romanticizes Greek heritage while revealing a war-torn history that changed so many people’s lives—you will be enamored by the heroine’s zeal for finding her truth, no matter how much it hurts. Brilliant!

The Clover House by Henriette Lazaridis Power
Category: Contemporary, Historical, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Released April 2, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0345530684
Rated 5 out of 5 Stars
Book and Review courtesy of Romance Junkies.

An absorbing novel, THE CLOVER HOUSE ventures between present day and 1940s World War II war-torn Greece, nostalgia dripping from every page. It’s a journey of the human spirit, of the hope of belonging to one’s self and to one’s family history, no matter how sad it can be before the true joy of acceptance is realized.

Calliope “Callie” Notaris Brown spent many vacations as a child with her mother in Patras, Greece. Even though her mother married an American and lived in America during her married life, Greece will always be her home. Callie has listened to her mother’s stories of her homeland, always wanting to fit in, but never feeling as if she is truly included in her mother’s world.

Engaged to be married, Callie’s fiancé, Jonah, is upset when she decides to go to Greece alone to settle her recently deceased uncle’s affairs. Callie isn’t even sure why she doesn’t want Jonah there, anymore than why she hasn’t been able to tell her family that she’s engaged. She has always had a difficult time getting on well with her mother and the less complicated her own life, the easier it is to deal with her mother’s habits. Callie’s independent streak shines on each page of this novel. She’s not always confident that her decisions are the right ones but she forges forward without permission from herself, often feeling reckless as she tries to understand where her life is going. Such is one of these times when she meets a young couple on the bus from the airport to Patras and forms a friendship that will weave in and out of her time in Greece.

THE CLOVER HOUSE is fascinating, pulling the reader through the present and the past while solving the ever-changing mystery of Callie’s heritage page by page. The descriptions are effervescent, especially during Carnival, creating a world that Callie thought she knew but as revelations are discovered, she’s not sure which of her mother’s childhood memories are fantasy and what is shockingly the truth.

If you love history mixed with modern day, then you’ll love how this novel propels its characters’ stories forward by revealing clues in their past that have affected their present. Like any family grieving a loved one, questions are asked and sometimes the answers aren’t expected or desired.

Callie not only grieves her uncle but also the life she thought she knew, becoming less and less sure of who she is, or where she’s going. Will her uncle’s clues lead her to the truth? Will Callie follow the hints or walk away? Is she brave enough to know the truth? An epic dive into what’s best about women’s fiction, author Henriette Lazaridis Power seamlessly guides the reader’s fears and heart with her storytelling skills. Absolutely breathtaking!

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