Book Review The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes. Only after I started to read this book did I remember that I found The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes through a list of books by authors from the greater Seattle area…that of course being where I am from. I added it to my list for that reason, without knowing much more about it.

I want to support local up and coming writers, and I think Estes has a great future as a writer, even though this work of hers shows her as a neophyte author. I actually loved the plot but my only objection is when an author uses coincidence to further the plot in a way that seems far-fetched.

Beyond that, the story is beautiful. A tale of a wealthy young woman from Seattle who discovers a beautifully embroidered silk sleeve hidden under the stairs of her ancestral summer home in the San Juan Islands.

The novel unfolds in two parallel stories; that of 21st century Inara searching to find out whatever she can about the long hidden blue silk embroidered sleeve and Mei Lein a young Chinese immigrant living in Seattle and then the San Juan Islands a century earlier.

How are these two women connected? What is Mei Lein’s secret and why did she hide the embroidered sleeve under the stairs? What garment does the sleeve belong to and what story might be solved if that garment could be found?

Estes weaves the tale, adding a few too many coincidences to wrap it all up in the end, but this first novel for Estes is tender and thoughtful and leaves a message that we can forgive the sins of the past if we are brave enough to do so.

⭐️⭐️⭐️Three stars for The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, by Kelli Estes. Read last week’s review of 11/23/63.

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