Member Review

“It arose not from desire or even interest, but from what would happen . . . if she just let it?”


Barely out of high school Annabeth is left reeling when her parents are killed in an accident, leaving her to the tender mercies of overbearing, though well-meaning, Aunt Janet, who lives in Kansas. After a suitable mourning period, although still unable to grieve properly for her loss, Annabeth decides to return to her family home in Connecticut, where she hides herself away from people, surrounds herself with her parents things, and life comes to a standstill.

One of her father's friends was landscape gardener David and his lawyer wife Ruth and it is he who eventually reaches out to Annabeth. At first David is there and attentive, but never pushy or demanding of her thoughts and feelings. However, very quickly things change and David becomes besotted and fixated on the emotionally vulnerable teenager, who displays mixed messaging to the much older man, despite her budding relationship with Theo, with whom she shares a passion for running and who is similar in age.

David and Ruth are sharing a common grief of their own at once again not conceiving a much longed for baby, so when Ruth's firm sends her to work directly, for an indefinite period, with an important client in California, their lives are turned upside down at just the wrong time, especially as David has serious problems with an angry client and both his business and his mental well-being are adversely affected.

David and Ruth only exchange one visit each in the other's direction and on both occasions you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. David turns more and more to Annabeth and Ruth discovers that her temporary boss and divorcee Brian, isn't as much of a slave-driver as she had at first thought.

Temptation consumes both parties and although only one of them is unfaithful to the other, their marriage is very much on the rocks. Ruth takes the decision that she needs to go home and confront David and their problems face to face, if there is to be any chance of a future together for them...
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Contemporary, Christian Fiction, is probably the way I would best sum up this book, with it having great potential for being optioned as one of those afternoon, made-for-television, Hallmark films. There was no earth shattering storyline, no bad language, several references to the church and prayer, and no explicit sexual scenes; everything was left to my imagination and the wonderfully documented thought processes of the characters.

Christian Fiction is another of those genres which I would probably never actively search out at a book retailer, as I am an individual of no faith, although I can appreciate the calming and reflective influences of a Christian place of worship. I was therefore pleased that the religious references which liberally peppered this storyline, were never preachy or overwhelming, only serving to focus individual thought processes, and ultimately never heavily influenced the decisions made by the characters.

Set in a single, present day timeline, with a short flashback as backstory reference, written from several viewpoints in the third person, the narrative was clearly defined by concise and well structured chapters.

This slow-burning, raw and brutally realistic storyline, was definitely all about the cast of characters and their interactions with one another. Well-rounded, although flawed, and beautifully drawn and developed as they undoubtedly were, I found it quite difficult to relate to many of them, or invest in their struggles quite as much as I would have hoped to. The weakest character for me, was David, who really needed a darned good shake, to get him out of his state of apathy, self-pity and constantly feeling sorry for himself. The strongest character was slightly more difficult to pin down between Brian's wife Maeve and teenager Annabeth, who had both chosen to take themselves out of the impossible situations they had found themselves in, but who had dealt with the aftermath and fallout in very different ways.

I may have perhaps preferred the ending to be a little more definitive, or at least for Ruth and David to have discussed their issues and possible ways forward towards forgiveness and moving on together, rather then the silent acceptance of the wrongs they had wrought against each other and the 'let's not talk about it any more', non confrontational attitude they both seemed to adopt. I guess that might be some folks way of dealing with such a monumental breach of trust in someone you thought you knew inside out - definitely not an option I would take if I found myself in similar circumstances, but then I don't have any faith to fall back on or use as an emotional crutch.

Perhaps if they had individually paid more attention to their respective sermons about the perils of covet and temptation, then they might not have even noticed that the grass may have been slightly greener on the other side, although it seldom is, eliminating the need for so much forgiveness and redemption!

As a confirmed 'armchair traveller', the author totally absorbed me in some wonderfully descriptive narrative around the multi locational settings for the story, which immersed me in the sights, smells and cultures beautifully.

Overall, a totally enjoyable, easy to read story.