I work as a nurse and up until recently worked two part time jobs, one during the day and one overnight. I'm transitioning to a full time day position and just can't quite find the time to finish the books I'm reading. I'm ready to be done with it though. Have you ever read one of those books and thought to yourself, "Just get on with it, already, will you?!?" Yeah, you can imagine how that review is going to be...
Well, speaking of lukewarm reviews, that's what you're in store for today.
I had read Kristin Hannah's Firefly Lane some time ago and couldn't quite honestly remember if I liked it or not. (Now you see my dilemma and need for a book review/journal?) So I picked up On Mystic Lake with no real expectations, especially since I am not a huge "romance" novel fan. Well....maybe a little romance but not the ones that have to describe every sexual encounter in such detail as you have to wonder how many times they brought out their thesaurus to describe the character's reproductive parts...
Anyway, this book was one of those that just seemed like it would never end. I never really warmed up to any of the main characters, except for the college bound teenager and six year old, both of whom really have not a lot of page time in the book.
The story revolves around Annie, a super busy "household and family lifestyle manager". Her character spends a good amount of time justifying being a housewife/stay at home Mom that doesn't have time for her husband. The husband, Blake, is kind of a scummy lawyer, who decides that he would rather make a new life with some hussy at the law firm and dumps Annie on the day their teenage daughter leaves to go abroad in a foreign exchange student program. Annie runs away to see her father in her small backwoods/mountain-y hometown and to scrape her life back together. She ends up romancing her high school "sort of" boyfriend, Nick, who married her high school best friend who since died. Mix it up with Nick's six year old daughter, who is so traumatized by her Mother's death and father's spiral into depression, that she does not speak...until Annie arrives, that is.
The book was well written but honestly was chock full of clichés and stereotypes that felt like it should have been written in the 60's. In my opinion, the author was trying to go all Nicholas Sparks but ended up like Nicholas Sparks on a bad day mixed with a little Jacqueline Susann. THEN, to add insult to injury, the ending sucked majorly. I usually try to avoid the topic of endings but this was such a non-ending that I felt like it was my civic duty to warn you.
There was ONE good thing about the novel (besides the fact that it ended). The author referenced an old Alan Alda & Ellen Burstyn movie called Same Time, Next Year. Having never watched (or heard of in that matter) the movie, I was intrigued in the plot. One night I stumbled upon it on Video On Demand and curled up for the night. By the end of the movie, I had completely forgiven Kristin Hannah for beating me up with her stereotypes in On Mystic Lake and introducing me to this movie which incidentally, is making it's way onto my top 10 movie list.
Here's the blurb...
As a note, I find it ironic that while Kristin Hannah used so many clichés and stereotypes that she referenced this movie which kind of breaks the mold on romantic comedies by making you fall in love with the two main characters who are in a long term adulterous relationship.
So back to the book...my two cents, read the book if you're bored and have nothing else to read. Watch the movie if you're a closet "think outside the box" sappy romantic.
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