I am catching up on the books I have read and not reviewed to start the new year fresh. I downloaded the library app so I can read in bed before I go to sleep. I take a muscle relaxer because I sleep on my back all night since I had a back fusion. It takes approximately 15 minutes before I start getting sleepy and having that app has been great. I have read my favorite author, Kristen Hannah four of her books in a short period of time. One of my problems is when I am into a book I have to read it to the end. So I am still into it when I wake up the next day. I don’t get much done until I finish it.
Angel Falls, released June of 2010, most of Kristin Hannahs books are set in the Pacific Northwest like this one. Mikaela Campbell is married to a doctor, Liam Campbell. She met him when she took her child from a previous relationship to his office for an illness. She had moved to the small town recently and the doctor was very smitten with Mikaela. They ended up getting married and lived in the country on a horse farm. As the children grew she was very involved in the school and was loved.
One morning she was in the barn and one of the horses got frightened and knocked her out. She was taken to the hospital and was in a coma. Her husband was told that she would not wake up but he would not give up. He would go every day and talk with her, play her favorite music, tell her stories, talk about the past and tell her about the kids. He was just trying to figure out a way to get her to come back to them.
He decided to go through her closet and found clothing that she had kept but hadn’t worn. He also found a bag that contained a large diamond engagement ring and a photo of Mikaela and a movie star, Julian True. She would not talk about her life before she came to Angel Falls and this was a clue to it.
After much soul-searching Liam hatched a plan to contact Julian True, someone from her past. Mikaela’s mother also was asked about Julian and she did not want to bring him back into their lives. Will Julian be the one that can help bring Mikaela back? She was just deep in her coma and there was nothing wrong with her brain. Please read it, another good book by Kristen Hannah.
On Mystic Lake, Released December 2007 This book starts out with Annie Colwater preparing to send her daughter abroad for school for a semester. She and her husband take the daughter to the airport. On the way home the husband tells Annie that he is leaving her for a younger woman and that he is in love with her.
Annie Colwater is left in a large home, by herself, a home that has her touch everywhere because she is the one that had the house built. Her husband is a successful businessman so they could have this kind of home overlooking the water.
She had given the daughter and the husband everything of her. She was totally blindsided by this as she had hoped that they could travel since the daughter will be gone. She is lonely and afraid and decided to go to Mystic, a small town in Washington State where she grew up and her father lives.
Annie slowly starts meeting up with old friends from high school. Friends that she had not kept up with but should have tried. She was shocked when she found out that her very best friend had died. When she tried to find out how she died everyone skirted the issue. Her friend had married the boyfriend that both girls loved. He became a policeman in the city. She finally went to visit him and found that he had a six year old daughter who quit talking when her mother passed away.
So when you read on you find out how the best friend died, how the little girl started talking and how the policeman overcame his drinking problem.
This was an outstanding read.
Winter Garden Released February 2010, I like it when Kristin Hannah’s books have a lot of historical basis. It took me awhile into the book to get the meaning of the title and later I had an Ah Ha moment.
There are two sisters, Meredith and Nina that come together to help when their father becomes ill. One is a famous photographer and the other runs the family apple orchard business. They have a mother, Anya who is cold and disapproving all the time. When they were younger their mother would tell bits and pieces of a Russian fairy tale. When the father was dying he asked for a promise to get the mother to tell the fairy tale all the way through.
That is when they take their mother to Russia and they learn about what their mother had to endure in Leningrad during the war.
I really had no idea about Russia during this time and the history was interesting. It also has a surprise ending.
True Colors Released April 2010. There is a father in this book who is a disapproving man and cares much about the family reputation and pines after his wife who passed away. There are three adult daughters who became very good friends One, Winona, is an excellent lawyer, but is overweight and would love to have her father’s approval.
Aurora is the middle sister who is the peacemaker and trys to keep everyone happy. She has a hidden pain.
Vivi Ann is the beauty, the dreamer, and is adored by everyone she meets. Vivi Ann lives on the horse ranch that has been in the family for three generations. It is large and they always need help. The man they had hired up and left one day so they advertised for some help. A stranger applied for the job and turned everything upside down.
To read on you will find out more about the stranger, who committed a crime and went to prison, whose loyalties will be tested.
Enjoy!
This book was inspired by a first book titled Dewey, by Vicky Myron. Dewey was a kitten that someone placed in a book return one January 18, 1988 at the Spencer public library in Iowa. As you can imagine it was a very cold day. That cat became very popular and if you didn’t know about Dewey or as his complete name is: Dewey Readmore Books you can learn about him within these pages.
So many people wrote to the library and told them about their cat stories that the author picked nine of them – get it? Nine Lives……to write this book. Cats that have helped people through tough times, illness, divorce, parents dying, children dying. I can’t go through every story, but I had to have my tissue with me. If you are a cat lover as I am, I suggest you read both books. They’re amazing.
