Title: At the Scent of Water

Author: Linda Nichols

Publisher: Bethany House 2004

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 414

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: A to Z Authors: N (doesn't fit anywhere else, but such a a great book!)

Life is rewarding for Samuel Truelove. He's a gifted surgeon, he's married to the love of his life, and he has a beautiful daughter. But when he's called to perform an emergency surgery, a deadly cascade of events is set in motion, and his picture-perfect life begins to unravel....

Annie Truelove, hoping to escape painful reminders of her grief, leaves her beloved home in the mountains of North Carolina and begins a new life in faraway Seattle. But a disturbing headline takes her back home, where memories of both joy and sorrow come flooding back. What will it take to heal two broken hearts?

My friend C picked this book off of the coffeehouse borrowing shelf.  You borrow a book, you add a book.  It's a great little system.  C read it in just a few days, gave it to me, and told me that I had to read this book.  So I began (after readying myself with a silly zombie book).

This book moved me.  Not just a little story of loss, but a deeply moving portayal of lost people struggling to find their place (forward or backward).  I found myself tearing up throughout the book.  The characters' pain was so intense, I felt it through the pages.  This wasn't a book that I could read in the car line at school or in the five minutes I waiting for a friend.  This was an intense reading book.  I had to block out an hour or two here and there to read.  I had to devote all my energy to the book.  But once I did, I was sucked into Linda Nichols world.  And loved every minute of it.

Linda Nichols has an amazing ability to weave an intricate story told through multple perspectives, but each one as real as you or me.  I rooted for each and every character.  I urged them to find their way, their happiness, even as I am struggling to find mine in real life.  I feel like this book came at the exact right time for me, just what I needed.  Although very sad, ultimately a story of hope and encouragement.  Sometimes we need to stumble and fall before we can dance....

Now I need to pass off the book to another friend.  Eventually it will get put back on the loaning bookshelf, but I will recommend it to all I know.  The next book I read will not compare to this one... so I think something lighter in fare is in order.  Zombies anyone?