On Mystic Lake
A Novel
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4.2 • 1.7K Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A poignant and tender story of love, loss, passion, and the fragile threads that bind families together from the author of The Nightingale.
“A beautifully simple, deeply compassionate story.”—Diana Gabaldon
Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was—the woman she is now desperate to become again.
In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make. . . .
Praise for On Mystic Lake
“Marvelous . . . a touching love story . . . You know a book is a winner when you devour it in one evening and hope there’s a sequel. . . . This page-turner has enough twists and turns to keep the reader up until the wee hours of the morning.”—USA Today
“Superb . . . I’ll heartily recommend On Mystic Lake to any woman . . . who demands that a story leave her in a satisfied glow.”—The Washington Post Book World
“A luminescent story . . . Kristin Hannah touches the deepest, most tender corners of our hearts.”—Tami Hoag
“Excellent . . . On Mystic Lake is an emotional experience you won’t soon forget.”—Rocky Mountain News
“Propels readers forward to the final chapter.”—The Seattle Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her first hardcover after a distinguished career in paperback romance (Home Again), Hannah shows what it takes for an author to make that defining leap. Never one to gush, she is more than ever disciplined in her writing, and the result is a clean, deep thrust into the reader's heart. Annie Colwater knows she's in for a spell of loneliness when her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, leaves Southern California for a summer in London, but the teary airport farewell is just the beginning of a chaotic time. Blake, Annie's husband, tells her that he wants a divorce so he can start a new life with his sweetheart, a young partner in his law firm. Blake's a cad--a habitual philanderer, and the sort of father who forgets birthdays--but we don't totally blame him for bailing out. Annie is Natalie's doting mother, Blake's dutiful wife and otherwise barely there. In search of the self she must find to survive, Annie goes back to Mystic, Wash., and the home of her father, gruffly loving Hank Borne, who did his best to raise her after the early death of her mother. Maternal loss is a terrain Hannah seems to know to a harrowing fare-thee-well. Annie's redemption begins with her profound kindness to six-year-old Isabella Delacroix, whose mother, Kathy--once Annie's best friend--has recently died. A romance with alcoholic cop Nick, Isabella's father, unfolds tenderly and with suspense, for all its inevitability. When Annie discovers she is pregnant with Blake's child, and then gives birth prematurely to a tiny girl who may not survive, the phrase "page-turner" is redefined. In Hannah's world, nothing can be taken for granted and triumph must be earned, with hard work, truthful reckoning and tears. 100,000 first printing; first serial to Good Housekeeping; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections; film rights optioned by Hearst Entertainment; rights sold in the U.K., Germany, France, Sweden and China.
Customer Reviews
Lovely
You can always count on a solid read from Kristen and Hannah. Her stories are always touching and eloquently written. She maintains the ability to transport you to another place, another time, another world. She always manages to build meaningful relationships between all of the characters in the novel that are never one dimensional. Truly a wonderful author.
Frustrating to end leaving reader to imagine the ending.
This book was written well and plot story line became interesting. I give bad review because it’s one where the author does not let reader enjoy the sweet hallmark type ending. It just hangs and stops to assume the happy ending. Most of us actually want to read the happy ending. Tear up as good love story ending. The way it just ends bam!! actually made me say cuss word out loud. I almost never cuss. I start a new author by first year and read in order if I like new author. I won’t trust her to read any more of her books.
Love matters
Life should not be about settling, but it takes wisdom and courage to reach for the honesty we deserve. Thank you,,Kristen