Customer Reviews

On Mystic Lake (Nova Audio Books)

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kristin Hannah has done it again. She is a master of taking the reader to beautiful places with interesting and often complex characters. Annie returns home to Mystic Lake after her husband of 20 years tells her that he wants a divorce because he's in love with another woman. Annie is a nurturer and is always there to take care of others, but in the meantime she has lost herself. During her stay in Mystic Lake she comes to know true love, finds out about herself, and helps a little girl who has lost her mommy understand that "it's going to be okay." The little girl, Izzy, will capture your heart and make you laugh and cry. Hannah keeps you waiting until the bitter end...the last few pages...to see how things tie up and if the ending will be happy. This book will not disappoint you.

You don't know what you're missing if you've never read a book by Kristin Hannah, and _On Mystic Lake_ is one of the absolute best books ever written. The characters come alive and endear themselves to your heart. Annie is down to earth and easy to read about. Izzie, the little girl who needs to find her way into the world again is precious and Nick is the type of character whom you wish you could jump into the book and give a hug to. _On Mystic Lake_ is by no means "lite reading". The main character, Annie, is getting a divorce from her husband who claims to love another woman. Trying to come to grips with her failing marriage, Annie returns home to Mystic to spend some time with her father. There she meets up with her first love, Nick, who chose her best friend over her, breaking Annie's heart. It turns out that Nick's wife (Annie's old best friend) has died leaving Nick and his daughter Izzie devestated. When the three first get together, it's sort of like the blind leading the blind. They are all so hurt that it is hard to see who needs more help. But, Annie brings healing to Izzie's soul, the little girl mends Annie's heart, and a love rekindles between Nick and Annie. Still, things are not that easy, and a conflict makes the world harder in Mystic. Kristin Hannah is an amazingly gifted author and her talent shines in _On Mystic Lake_. Her descriptive writing will take you to another place- a little logging town in Washington where mist floats above the ground and life moves at a slower pace. This is a beautiful book about three healing souls who learn that bad things do happen but you can get around them. I'd recomend _On Mystic Lake_ to anyone who enjoys putting down a book with a sense that the world is a wonderful place and they can do something to make it better.

This is the first book of Kristin Hannah's that I've read and it won't be the last. Her story of Annie Colwater is so realistic in this day and age of the modern woman. After the initial heartbreak, she tries to find who she truly is after so many years of acting the part she thought she was suppose to be for her husband. I'm glad the book doesn't go to the extreme of 'blaming' the husband for the whole situation and instead has Annie discover for herself the direction she needs to take with her life. If you want an enjoyable reading with a little heartbreak, a few tears, and some strong emotions, you must read this book.

On 11/11, I endured the funeral of a very dear friend. As I approached the church, I noticed the sun breaking through the clouds, beaming down rays of light to shine down on the building where she lay inside, awaiting the eulogy to be given for her final goodbye. I thought my heart would break and I would never stop crying, even though I finally did. After the funeral, I stopped by my favorite bookstore and purchased four novels, two of which were written by Kristin Hannah. That evening, I made the mistake of starting to read ON MYSTIC LAKE. Because my eyelids were still swollen from the many tears I'd cried at the funeral and during the day, and my eyeballs felt like sandpaper was swiping over them every time I blinked, I thought it best to put the book down and finish reading it later. The next morning I found myself picking the novel up again. After I started to read. I couldn't stop until I'd read the rest of story, nor did I stop crying. I have to believe that Kristin Hannah has the finest talent to write the sweetest of love stories that I've ever had the pleasure to read in this novel. I have another one of her novels, but I don't dare start it right away. I need a break from the tears. KH had no trouble from the very beginning to capture of my attention. I felt every moment of Annie's heartache, as the description of the author's plot and characters was most excellent. If you want a genuine, heartfelt/heartbreaking/happy-ending love story, do this one. Just make sure you have a box of Kleen-x sitting close by. You'll need it.

It is easy sometimes for readers to forget what a good book really is. It is easy sometimes for us to accept the complacency and mediocracy that pours from the publishing world in a torrent of so-called "bestsellers" and "best yets" -- until a true voice with a marvelous story to tell sneaks in while nobody is looking. Kristin Hannah is just that voice; "On Mystic Lake" is just that story.

It isn't an easy book to read. It deals with divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. The trials and travails of Annie, Nick, and Izzy-bear as they deal with these issues will have you crying and despairing as they muck their way through -- it will have you laughing and rejoicing when they triumph in the end. But this isn't a novel about issues and that's why it works. Their story captures your fancy on page one. It becomes a part of your heart by the end.

I expected a lot more from this book and have to say I was disappointed. There was nothing "bad" about the book-it was a quick, easy and nice read...but not memorable. The plotlines were predictable and the characters did not have much depth (particularly the father, Hank). I found the writing mediocre most of the time.

There were a few great moments, more at the end of the book than the beginning. I knew how it was going to end, but didn't really care.

There are much better books out there!

On Mystic Lake is another very hard-to-put down book! I truly enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Annelise, the main character of the story had a devastating blow when on the way home from dropping her daughter off at the airport for college, her husband says he wants a divorce. Blake told her he hasn't been in love with her for years, and that he'd been having an affair with Suzannah for a very long time.

Thrown into a deep depression of course over that awful news, Annilise returns to her home on Mystic Lake, where she grew up to her father's house. Her father provides the love and comfort , support she needs at this trying time, while Annilise is trying to figure out what to do. It doesn't take too long though, when gradually, she begins to take new steps in another direction. She meets up with Nick, an old love from high school. He and his 6-year-old daughter are terribly grief-stricken from the loss of his wife Kathy. His daughter hasn't spoken a single word since the loss of her mother, and Nick is becoming an alcoholic.

Nick needs someone in his life not only to help him recover, but moreso for his daughter. This is where Annilise steps in, watching Izzy for Nick, and yet at the same time, providing the child with a motherly figure, which she so desparately needs.

As time goes along in the story, Annilise falls deeply in love again with Nick. Gradually, he tries to overcome his battles with grief, and alcoholism, and his daughter Izzy, with a lot of help from Annilise starts to talk again. Things begint o take a wonderful turn, until Annilise is once again dealt another blow.

This book begins when Annie and Blake Colwater take their daughter to the airport. The teenager plans to spend several months studying in London. On the drive home, Blake surprises Annie by asking for a divorce. Annie is shocked and totally falls apart. She leaves California and retreats to her hometown of Mystic, Washington. In Mystic, she meets up with her old boyfriend Nick, and immediately rekindles a romance. Nick has problems of his own and is haunted by his wife's death. Izzie, his six year old daughter is so upset by the loss of her mother that she no longer has the ability to speak. There are several different subplots going on and the author manages to juggle them quite well. The dilemma of the child Izzie was by far the most interesting and creative part of the book.

In a lot of ways this was quite an ambitious story, and Kristin Hannah gave an excellent account of the emotions that her characters experienced. She also wrote beautiful descriptive passages about the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula. However, Annie the main character was a little frustrating to read about. She was just too perfect. She's attractive, smart, thin, rich. talented, a great mother and a really nice person! Wow! I also had a difficult time believing that a wife would not have a clue to the fact that the man she was married to for 20 years had consistently been unfaithful to her for ages. Come on Annie, a man can't be working late every night! Perhaps that was Annie's flaw, she was so wrapped up in her daughter and in creating a perfect home that she ignored the signs of a husband who had little loyalty or real interest in his family.

This is my first book by Kristin Hannah. I'm not sure why I read this book, it's not my norm, but boy am I glad I did. This book was so engrossing I found myself reading it every chance I got. The characters were so vivid I felt like I knew them all.

I quickly became engrossed in this book and felt a lot of empathy for Annie's plight when her husband decides to leave her. However as the book progressed it became apparent that it would never amount to more than a sickly sweet romance and that most of the characters - apart from the heroine and a few others - would be cardboard cutouts. At the point when she pops into Lurlene's salon for a makeover I got that sinking feeling that I didn't want to meet another stereotypical American character and felt that I could accurately predict Lurlene's behaviour and dialogue in advance - and how right I was!

The book is full of this kind of sloppy writing, which in the long run completely destroys its credibility. How convenient for Nick that Annie turns up when she does and takes over the parenting role that he has neglected, considering that (at this point of the story) he is neither a lover or a relative just an old friend. There is also no mention of whether Annie is paid for caring for Izzie (though I would guess that she doesn't need the money anyway). Personally if I had spent years caring for a man and a child only to be cast aside I don't think I would be so keen to rush into the same situation again.

I'm not saying this novel doesn't have its good points - certainly the relationship between Annie and Izzie is very touchingly portrayed but it is certainly not what the blurb on the jacket promised. It is certainly not about a woman 'finding herself' or finding any form of enlightment it is simply about a woman who exchanges a unsatisfactory relationship with a man who doesn't love her for a better relationship with a man who does - (a stock plot for romanctic novels) but apart from that does not change her essential role in life (a dogsbody) in any way at all.