Publisher: Gallery Books
Cover: Jae Song
Synopsis:
If you could do it all over again, would you still choose him?
At age thirty-nine, Lucie Walker has no choice but to start her life over when she comes to, up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay, with no idea how she got there or who she is. Her memory loss is caused by an emotional trauma she knows nothing about, and only when handsome, quiet Grady Goodall arrives at the hospital does she learn she has a home, a career, and a wedding just two months away. What went wrong? Grady seems to care for her, but Lucie is no more sure of him than she is of anything. As she collects the clues of her past self, she unlocks the mystery of what happened to her. The painful secrets she uncovers could hold the key to her future—if she trusts her heart enough to guide her.
Review
Love Water Memory is an excellent read and I’ve discovered a new author in the process. This book is a bit different from my usual reads. It covers a wide range of issues, focusing primarily on mental illness and self discovery.
Lucie Walker experiences amnesia prompted by an initially unknown event — traumatic in nature. She can’t remember much about her life prior to being found knee deep in the San Francisco Bay waters. As she begins to unravel the mystery that is “Lucie” she finds out she has a fiancée — Grady Goodall. They begin working on Lucie’s recover, but soon also begin to work on rekindling their relationship. All Lucie is sure of is she feels a sense of comfort around Grady and this comfort is the closest feeling to love Lucie can imagine. She takes a chance and begins to rediscover who she was and who she is now. The differences are night and day.
Grady Goodall is everything a woman would want, but he has trouble expressing himself. His frustrations, his anger, his love, everything — he bottles his emotions. Lucie soon discovers that before the amnesia she behaved in a very similar fashion. She shared very little information about her past and rarely discussed her feelings. She was content with Grady’s companionship but the new Lucie was seeking a partner someone to share her feelings, someone she could trust. Her uncertainty of Grady’s feelings and bashfulness prevents them from moving into intimate territory but for most of the book the reader experiences what it’s like to love, lose and how things can be different when given a second chance at love.
I really enjoyed this book. I felt the ending fell a little short — mostly because I wanted more. I understood why it ended in that manner though which in a way made it perfect especially for the pace and tone of this book. There were a lot of beautiful parts. The dynamic between Grady and Lucie is interesting as well as the interactions with other characters. The book is told from three character perspectives and gives you a look at the person experiencing the illness as well as two others who are both affected by her diagnosis and recovery.
This book is thought provoking and carefully crafted, creating a beautiful and powerful love story while unearthing the mystery of mental illness and how it affects all involved. This book moves slowly at times, but I was never bored. It isn’t action packed, erotica or a book filled with cliché lines. It’s fresh and well written providing you the ability to think and reflect. I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend this read to my women’s fiction/adult fiction/contemporary romance/chick lit fans.
About the Author
Jennie Shortridge has published five novels: Love Water Memory,When She Flew, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe,Eating Heaven, and Riding with the Queen. When not writing, teaching writing workshops, or volunteering with kids, Jennie stays busy as a founding member of Seattle7Writers.org, a collective of Northwest authors devoted both to raising funds for community literacy projects and to raising awareness of Northwest literature.
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