Outside the Lines
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When Eden was ten years old she found her father, David, bleeding on the bathroom floor. The suicide attempt led to her parents' divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden's life.
Twenty years later, Eden runs a successful catering company and dreams of opening a restaurant. Since childhood, she has heard from her father only rarely, just enough to know that he's been living on the streets and struggling with mental illness. But lately there has been no word at all. After a series of failed romantic relationships and a health scare from her mother, Eden decides it's time to find her father. Her search takes her to a downtown Seattle homeless shelter, and to Jack Baker, its handsome and charming director. Jack convinces Eden to volunteer her skills as a professional chef with the shelter. In return, he helps her in her quest.
As the connection between Eden and Jack grows stronger, and their investigation brings them closer to David, Eden must come to terms with her true emotions, the secrets her mother has kept from her, and the painful question of whether her father, after all these years, even wants to be found.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hatvany's latest (after Best Kept Secret), vivid and flawed characters struggle with the complexities of family, friends, and lovers. Seattle caterer and budding restaurateur Eden West is on a mission to find her father and maybe fix her love life in the bargain. After a suicide attempt 20 years ago, Eden's father, a manic-depressive, alcoholic painter, disappeared. Now, incapable of a successful relationship, Eden is determined to find out what has become of him. For help, she visits a homeless shelter, Hope House, and tumbles into a relationship with its director, who urges her to volunteer her culinary services. Hatvany unfolds her tale over two time periods and from the perspectives of both Eden and her father, which eventually helps to enrich and complicate the adult Eden. Family secrets and Eden's inability to accept her father will keep readers guessing, and the evolution of Eden's relationships with her mother, stepfather, and new boyfriend lends credence to the ending. A palpable love story, emotional search for and acceptance of a lost parent, and a bittersweet ending make for an enveloping, heartfelt read.
