I knew these basics of the story before I started reading, but I quickly realized I shouldn’t have any expectations about where the storyline was going – there were so many twists and turns in the plots and I loved watching it all unfold. It’s not their own baby brought back, but it’s something not too far off, and he brings a huge measure of happiness to this family that thought they might never know it again. On a trip to feed and care for sick families in one of the poor neighborhoods of Philadelphia, they discover a baby boy who has been orphaned by the Flu and they take him in. Within a few months of arriving in Philadelphia, the Spanish Flu arrives in America and sweeps through Philadelphia, leaving more than 12,000 people dead.īut the Spanish Flu brings more than tragedy to the Bright family – it also brings them a new baby boy. Pauline, especially, hopes to leave behind her grief and face the realities of death in a new way as part of her husband’s new job.īut, of course, things don’t go as planned. They’ve also recently buried their baby boy who was born with a heart defect and only lived for a few months. His uncle has no children but has always liked Thomas, so he wants Thomas to take over the business when he’s ready to retire.Īnd it’s not just the country that the Brights are leaving behind. The Bright family – Pauline and Thomas and their three young girls – move to Philadelphia, leaving behind their life in the country so Thomas can take a job with his uncle running his mortuary. As Bright as Heaven SummaryĪs Bright as Heaven takes place in Philadelphia during WWI. This time, it sucked me right in and I couldn’t read it fast enough.

Hallelujah! The reading gods were finally smiling down on me.

The hardcover for As Bright as Heaven is fairly big, so I didn’t want to take that with us to Italy, so instead I requested a Kindle version and my hold came up two hours before we left for the airport. When we moved here, I requested it from the library and after two more renewals, I finally got got past that first page. I checked it out again, read a page or two, and then it went back again, unfinished.

I checked it out back in April from my Arizona library and didn’t even crack it open before it was due back. It was possibly the book of the three I was most excited about, but somehow I just could not get into it. As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner was one of my three picks for the 2018 Summer round of Tell Me What to Read.

Book as bright as heaven