Stolen Son

Kindergarten teacher Ella Mason is up to her elbows in cakes and spaghetti sauce for her school’s bake sale fundraiser when she is interrupted by a knock at the door. It’s the appointment that she forgot about; someone is coming to give her an estimate on necessary repairs to her house. She’s barely managed to make ends meet and keep her life together the past five years since her son was stolen from the hospital shortly after his birth, let alone worry about a new roof. Ella teaches, she gardens, she cooks, she exists, but her life has a huge, gaping hole in it. Her mom is nagging her about finding a man and settling down, but Ella isn’t ready for that yet, and may never be.

Widowed builder Rafe Wallace can’t understand why Ella would freak out upon seeing him in her rose garden, but he aims to find out. As he does the repairs on her house, he comes to genuinely like her, and he desires her as well. Getting to know her, he sees the loss and heartbreak that drives her. He also knows that there is more pain to come for her when she finds out the secret that he is keeping.

What an amazing and heart-wrenching story! Fran Shaff packs a powerful emotional punch into these 125 pages, and you’ll weep your way through this ending. Joy, pain, sorrow, elation - they’re all covered here in varying degrees, and I was enchanted even as I was emoting all over into my wad of tissues. Stolen Son gives hope and a heart-warming ending, proving that the truth is the best medicine.

Reviewed by: Michelle