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!)
Leave a comment
to win a copy of my first novel: A Familiar Shore.
