BOOK REVIEW: On Mystic Lake By Kristin Hannah

 

Publication Date: April 27, 2004
Format: Paperback
Genre:  Fiction, Romance 

Publisher: Ballantine Books      
Length: 
448 pages
Buy:  Kindle Paperback 

Synopsis

Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was—the woman she is now desperate to become again.

In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make. . . .

Review: 

I know what you are thinking...really? Another Kristin Hannah book? Yes I have become quite obsessed.  Her writing just draws me in.  Her characters and situations seem so realistic that you can't help but love her characters and feel what they feel.  Even the settings are atmospheric and almost another character.  I know this is true for The Great Alone, with this one, its the quiet beauty and familiarity of a small town in a beautiful location.  I've been to Washington state and I have to agree that this place is magical.  The trees are enormous and you feel like you've entered another country.  Its beautiful and sometimes unforgiving.  The weather is unpredictable and the people are friendly.  

Annie goes home after discovering her husband of 20 years is having an affair and is not in love with her anymore.  What she finds there is a link to her past.  A old flame and a trouble girl that she can relate to.  People who need her.  But maybe she needs them too.  There she discovers what she has been blind to for her whole marriage and she starts to put life back into perspective. 

Nick lost his wife in a most horrific way but if he is honest he probably lost her well before that fateful day.  Now he drowns his sorrows in the bottle just like his mom did while his little girl struggles to come to terms with losing her mother and her father.  She believes she is disappearing and every time Nick looks at her he sees his failures not his achievements.  

As the bond grows between Nick and Annie they know this is bound to end in heartbreak but they can't seem to tear themselves apart.  There is history, a shared sadness and something that binds them together, a shared need.  

This book is beautiful, complex, sad and uplifting.  How do you look back on your life? Did you lose yourself to appease someone else? Or were you the one that selfishly took without giving back.  Maybe if you are one of the lucky ones you retained yourself and you found someone to walk beside you and you helped each other when you stumbled.  Another excellent read by Kristin Hannah. 



Click on the 3 lines at the top of the blog to view my sidebar where you can follow me on facebook, bloglovin, and amazon 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BOOK REVIEW: Their Vicious Darling by Nikki St. Crowe

BOOK REVIEW: Don't You Dare by CE Ricci

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth