Thursday, March 21, 2013

BookHungry's March Selection...Learning to Swim

This month's bookhungry selection came to us from Karla Nellenbach.

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry.

Amazon's Blurb:

“If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. But I didn’t, and I saw something fall from the rear deck of the opposite ferry: a small, wide-eyed human face, in one tiny frozen moment, as it plummeted toward the water.”

When she sees what looks like a child tumbling from a ferry into frigid Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. When she gets the child to shore she discovers that his name is Paul, he speaks only French—and no one seems to be looking for him.
  
Her determination to protect Paul pulls Troy from her quiet life in a small Adirondack town into an unfamiliar world of wealth and privilege in Canada and then in Vermont. Her attachment to him—and the danger she faces when she tries to unravel the mystery of his abandonment—force her to evaluate everything she thought true about herself. 

I don't even know where to start on this review.  I guess the beginning is the best place. 

"If I'd blinked, I would have missed it."

It caught me from the very first line.  Sometimes you read a book and you know exactly what it is that keeps you coming back.  That was not the case for me with this story

Troy sees a child plunge into the icy waters of Lake Champlain and without second thought jumps into the water in order to save him.  From here, Sara Henry takes us on a journey with Troy to find the boys family and to figure out what happened and why.  Since I don't want to give up any spoilers I will just say this.  What you think will happen doesn't and what you hope will happen won't.

The bad guy in this story wasn't a total surprise to me, I knew it had to have some crazy twist to it, and I was happy with the outcome when it came to said "bad guy".  To be honest, I would have been happier if the kidnapper had suffered more for a couple of reasons and if you read the story you'll be able to figure it out.  

Normally reviews come pretty easy to me.  In this instance that doesn't seem to be the case.  And I am pretty sure it's because the parts that were so interesting I can't really discuss without giving anything away.  It's a good read and great way to while away a pleasant afternoon. 





4 comments:

Linda G. said...

Wow. Way to get me intriqued, Breakey. And here I am, with a over-tall TBR pile...

Unknown said...

Yeah, Breakey. Quit making Linda add to her pile. When they find her buried under a book avalanche, they will blame you. I'm just sayin.

Also, great review. It's tough when the parts of the book you really want to tell people about end up giving shit away.

abby mumford said...

i'll continue the trend and call you, Breakey. so....great review! this book was a mystery, not in that it's in the mystery genre, but that i couldn't get a complete read on how i felt about it and i have no idea why. the beginning and the ending were awesome, but the middle lagged a bit.....essentially the pacing was uneven, as were my feelings about this.

the end.

Patty Blount said...

I just kind of wanted to slap Troy at times. But overall, still a great read.