The Helping Heart by Annie M. Ballard

Author

The Helping Heart

Helen, nearly forty, returns to Stella Mare after twenty years with secrets. The village reminds her of things she’d rather forget, including her grief from her mother’s death, but she hopes to strengthen connections with her family. Turns out, being with her sisters is impossible. They don’t understand her, and she can’t understand them, though she’s tried. When the bickering becomes too contentious to be ignored, Helen tries to fix it. A hiking trip is Helen’s answer, even when the hike consultant suggests they’re better suited for a day at the spa. To her surprise, her sisters agree to a four-day backpacking trip along the Bay of Fundy. Only a few kilometers from home, it’s truly a world apart. The Fundy Footpath, beautiful and challenging, offers gifts: a chance to lead, to follow, to take care of each other, to allow others to care. But the gift you get might not be the gift you wanted. Adversity makes a trip into an adventure, and adventure abounds, testing everyone to their limits. With only themselves to count on, their connections are strained and tested, and the truth begs to be heard. Helen’s secrets threaten to derail them all, but bringing her shame to light is too painful. Except these are her sisters…. On the hiking trail, perhaps no one will get what they want, but will they get what they deserve?

Reviews

Ballard’s finale in her Sisters of Stella Mare series, after A Home Out of Ashes, digs into the healing power of family, as older sister Helen Madison returns home after 20 years in the big city. On the outs with her attorney partnership and recently divorced, Helen is eager to dole out advice to her younger sisters, despite the fact that her own life is secretly falling apart. Meanwhile, Rett, Evie, and Dorie aren’t as thrilled to be back around their sister as Helen had hoped; as the tensions between the girls escalate to a breaking point, she hatches a plan to hike the dangerous Fundy Footpath to get her family back on the same team again.

Each volume in the series offers readers a panoramic glimpse of one of the sisters, and this time Helen’s firmly on center stage. Her troubled past, including a sexual assault in high school and her own sketchy choices at her law firm, comes rushing back during the group’s multi-day hike, and Ballard structures the bond between the sisters—regardless of their petty disagreements—as the glue that will help Helen get her life back on track. Their camaraderie is heartwarming, and their attempts to restore closeness and help each other through troubles keeps the tone upbeat.

Ballard reveals Helen’s past secrets—and her perceived failure as a mother to her son Jacob—subtly, mirroring the shame and fear Helen feels at the thought of opening up to her family. Though that diminishes the emotional payoff when she finally bares her soul, it fits her personality and role within the family—Helen, “the big sister they needed,” believes she’s there to help her sisters “live better lives.” Ultimately, she realizes expecting herself to be perfect only hurts the people she loves, recognizing she is, in the end, “enough”—just the way she is.

Takeaway: Estranged sisters bond during a grueling family trek.

Comparable Titles: Barbara O’Neal’s The Starfish Sisters, Blair Thornburgh’s Ordinary Girls.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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