I Love a Good Surprise . . .

They Almost Always Come Home by Cynthia Ruchti surprised me. I thought it would me a nice little romance. I may have downloaded it for free. I read it because I’d seen so much marketing on it over the last year, I figured I may as well see what it was all about.

Wow. I mean, what a lovely story. And not what you think. A husband on a solo wilderness trip fails to return to his wife who is about to leave him. She doesn’t know if he’s dead or if he left her first.

Most of the story deals with internal struggles, but those are amplified by outer, physical struggles that come as part of the physical search for her lost husband. I don’t want to say too much, because there are many surprises along the way. And by surprises, I’m talking about things I (as a well-read, guesser of plots) did not guess. Twists that not only surprised me, but felt perfect for the story.

It took me a little while to jump into the story, since I was not crazy about the main character at first. But trust me, she's worth it. After a few chapters, I found myself longing to get back to the book, counting the hours until I could pick it up again. And lots of sleep was lost to finish it.

The boundary waters on the border of MN and Canada provide a giant setting for this small story. But the smallness of the story has the potential to touch a vast number of lives, because there’s something everyone can relate to in it.

A tale of the broken and beautiful--I hope you’ll give it a try.

What was the last book that surprised you? Have you read They Almost Always Come Home? Were you surprised? (no spoilers, please!)

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