(8/21/2010)
At first I feared this book would be a trite story about a woman having a mid-life crisis. This book is so well written it rises above that. Annabelle is going through the 'empty nest syndrome' with a husband who shuts her out physically, emotionally, and hardly speaks a word to her. They are total opposites and now they are growing further apart. She feels after 20 years of marriage there is nothing between them and begins to reminisce about her past and a man named Jeremiah.
The book goes back and forth between the present (’05) and the past (1977-80) when she first meets and marries Grant.
Jeremiah does not appear until almost half way through the book and it’s easy to see why Annabelle falls in love with him. He is everything her husband is not – handsome, a man who shows his feelings; successful; established in his career, and totally engaged when he is with her.
The scenes between Annabelle, her mother, and her pregnant daughter, Sophie, are very touching. The book discusses the roles of women and how some things change and some remain the same between the three generations.
Because you care about these people, you become totally hooked on their lives and want to keep reading to find out what happened in the past and how the problems in the present will be resolved.