Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge
Love Water Memory. Finished 1-22-14, rating 3.5/5, fiction, 326 pages, pub. 2013
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.
from Goodreads
Suffering from dissociative fugue, Lucie is clueless. She has no idea where she belongs, who she really is, what the relationship is with her fiance, or who her friends are. She is lost. Grady takes her back to Seattle and their life together, but they are virtual strangers. Lucie doesn’t remember anything and Grady isn’t familiar with the new Lucie, this new nicer woman who seems so curious. The two try to navigate living together while she tries to piece together what happened to make her break like she did.
I can’t imagine suffering from amnesia, how hard it must be especially if you don’t have support. Grady, as steady and nice as he was couldn’t have been adequate support for Lucie. Because she been all about her job before she didn’t have friends, or at least any that reached out to her. How sad is that? Grady didn’t seem to mind this and didn’t seem to want her to connect with the family she had, his sisters and her aunt. It was weird. They both just went through the day, muddling along. I was hoping for a little more oomph. I liked the new and improved Lucie and am glad that even if she didn’t find memories she found some peace, but there was something off about the relationship with Grady, from both sides.
This was an okay novel for me. I liked that the story was told from three perspectives and I loved seeing the way that Lucie really turned her life around. It was enjoyable and led to some questions about relationships and do we see people the way they are or do we see them through the lens of our own insecurities and fears. But the mystery wasn’t shocking by the time it was revealed and there wasn’t anything that really made me want to skip ten minutes of sleep and read the next chapter (the hallmark of a great book, in my humble opinion).
The gentleness of the storytelling was enough to make me want to read more from this author. Good thing I already have When She Flew on my shelf!
I received this book from She Reads. Go on over and see what other bloggers think about this one.
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What Jane Austen heroine are you?
I read one of the author’s earlier books years ago and really liked it, but haven’t read anything since. I’ve heard mostly good things about this book, enough that I am thinking of giving it a try one day. That is sad about Lucie’s isolation. My mom would stop at nothing to be there for me if something like that happened to me. I don’t think my husband could keep her away. And I know my in-laws would do what they could to help. Of course, my husband doesn’t sound like Grady, so he’d welcome the help.
The storyline sounds so good – too bad it’s not executed better.
I hope to get to this novel soon.
It is a shame that this wasn’t more of a page turner. It sounds like it has an interesting premise. oh well. 😦
This sounds like one I’d like a well. Thanks for sharing Stacy.
sounds like a good one.
I just read a book similar to this…but more of a thriller, Before I Go to Sleep. This one sounds interesting. I enjoy seeing how authors portray this. But sorry it wasn’t quite up to snuff.
I enjoyed reading your review. This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I enjoyed it. I’ll keep an I eye out for When She Flew.
I definitely liked this one more than you did, but then again, I’ve been a huge fan of this author for a long time now. I would recommend picking up some of her earlier novels – even though I really liked this book, I don’t think it’s her best.
What a wonderful review! This sounds like one I need to add to my reading list.
I liked the sound of this one (don’t remember if I got it or not, and I’m too lazy to check right now), but I would have preferred that you rated it higher. 🙂 It may not be worth it, now.