On Mystic Lake - Kristin Hannah

Annie Colwater thinks she has the perfect marriage, but on the day she and her husband, Blake, send their daughter to London for a study abroad program, Blake informs Annie that he no longer loves her. He's been having an affair with a younger woman and has fallen in love with her. He asks Annie for a divorce and walks out of her life. Annie is utterly devastated, and falls into a depression. She asks Blake to wait until their daughter comes home from London before making a final decision on the divorce. In the meantime, Annie heads home to Mystic, Washington to stay with her dad and try to pick up the pieces of her broken heart.

Back in Mystic, Annie learns that her best friend from high school has died, leaving her husband Nick, Annie's other best friend, and their six-year-old daughter Izzy behind. Annie pays Nick a visit, and Nick tells her that Kathy killed herself. He is tormented by Kathy's memory and has begun drinking and avoiding Izzy, basically leaving the town hairdresser to raise her. Izzy is feeling the effects of her mother's passing, as well. She's stopped speaking and thinks her fingers are disappearing, which lead to her being kicked out of school.

Annie decides to help Nick by taking over Izzy's care. Spending so much time with Izzy and Nick helps her rediscover who she was before Blake came into her life. She falls in love with Nick again, just as she had in high school. Nick has never stopped loving Annie, either. Just as life with Nick and Izzy falls into a perfect rhythm, Blake arrives in Mystic, begging Annie to forgive him and come back. Annie is still trying to decide what to do when she discovers she's pregnant with Blake's child. Feeling there's no other option, she leaves Izzy and Nick in Mystic and goes back to Blake, and all the while her heart is breaking again. She knows that she no longer loves Blake, but she feels an obligation to stand by him... especially now that she's having his child.

On Mystic Lake was my first Kristin Hannah book, and I don't think it will be my last. I like Ms. Hannah's writing style, and the story itself was just what I needed. I didn't love the book as much as I'd hoped, but I did love the characters, especially little Izzy. One character I had problems with, though, was Annie's dad, who kept pushing his own dreams onto her, not realizing -- or maybe not caring -- that Annie had dreams of her own. From reading summaries of the book, I knew beforehand that Annie would leave Nick once she discovered she was pregnant, and while a part of me wanted her to stay with Nick, another part (maybe the married one?) admired her decision to go back to Blake to forge a better life with him and their children. Still, I was pleased when she came to her senses and decided to do what made her, not others, happy.

3.75/5

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The Forgotten Garden is the selection for my family book club this month, and while I can't say that I loved it, it was a pretty good read. Described as a "rich and satisfying mystery," The Forgotten Garden is the story of one woman's search to discover who she is and where she came from.

On Nell Andrews' 21st birthday, her father informs her that he's not really her father, that he found her in 1913, abandoned and alone on a dock in Maryborough, Australia. Nell's world as she's known it falls apart, and it isn't until decades later that she begins to explore her true origins. Her only clue is a small white suitcase containing clothes and a book of fairy tales written by Eliza Makepeace. Nell travels to the Cornish coast, where she discovers an abandoned cottage that once belonged to her family, the Mountrachets. This cottage with its hidden garden, and the secrets it guards, holds the key to Nell's true identity.

Like I said, The Forgotten Garden was a good read, but, for me, it wasn't unputdownable. Maybe it was because I had so many things to do and not enough time to read, but I had a hard time getting into the story at first. There just seemed to be so many characters and so many different time periods to keep track of. But once I had a good chunk of time to spend in this world, I found that I enjoyed it more. Some disturbing secrets were revealed, and I discovered that I didn't like the Mountrachet family, at all. In some ways, I think it was better for Nell to have been raised by Hugh and Lil Andrews than it would have been had she been raised with the Mountrachets. And that's all I'm going to say because to say more would undoubtedly give too much away.

3.5/5

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. Pulitzer Prize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

Isn't that last line just awesome? It made me laugh the first time I read it. And Heat Wave did the same. It was a fun, light read. If you're a fan of the ABC show Castle, then you'll recognize the author's name, Richard Castle. Along with NYPD detective Kate Beckett, he's the main character of the show. It's no secret that Jameson Rook in the book is actually based on Richard Castle himself, just as Nikki Heat is based on Detective Beckett. Knowing that made this a really fun book to read. I kept picturing Castle and Beckett as Rook and Heat, and it was entertaining to read about the situations Castle chose to put Rook and Heat into. I enjoyed this book, but I think fans of the show will enjoy it more than those who may not have seen it.

3.25/5