"Big Stone Gap" book review

Imagine knowing all your life that when you hit 35 years old, your life would change completely. Then, at the age of 35, like clockwork, your world gets turned upside down, the people around you aren't who you thought they were, you aren't who you thought you were, you upheave your entire life's work and prepare to skip town for good with no particular long-term plan. Only love, the greatest power on earth, can save you now, but you've spent your whole life running so hard from love that you can't even recognize it in your dreams. 

That's my synopsis. The one I read for the book "Big Stone Gap" was this: "A long-buried family secret disrupts the quiet life of a single, middle-aged woman in 1978 Virginia." I was expecting much darker secrets and more of an action-packed mystery to play out, with crime scenes and police investigations and suspects. Instead, the plot was rather simple, borderline quaint: small town girl seeks answers about family, learns about herself and sets things right. But it was so genuine and relatable, that there were many moments that made me laugh, cry, get mad at, and be embarrassed for the main character. I could just as easily put myself in the main character's shoes if I was born and raised in a small town in the deep south, and in the end, the book made me reflect on my own life, and appreciate my friends, family, and my love so much more.