My take on: Love Water Memory

"She needed to clear her head before she met her aunt. There were so many things to ask, so many things to finally know and understand about who she was, who her family was, and most especially, what had happened to her parents. She would never be a real person until she knew where she came from." Pg. 194

One day you know who you are and what you want. But the next day you slowly lose yourself, until you totally forget who you are. That sounds scary. How do you move forward, if you don't even know where you began? Jennie Shortridge tackles that and more in her book Love Water Memory.

Thirty-nine-year-old Lucie Walker is starting over. She can't remember who she is. She can't remember how she wound up knee-deep in the waters of San Francisco Bay. She is literally a blank slate. But her fiance Grady Goodall knows who she is or at least he thought he knew. When Grady comes to the hospital to pick her up, Lucie learns of the life she once had. She has a thriving career and a wedding fast approaching. Is that all? What about her family? Did anyone besides Grady miss her? Is anyone looking for her? What went so terribly wrong that she can't remember the life she once led?

Grady. Grady. What to make of Grady? He loves her, that's something they both know for sure. But is he with her for the right reasons? That's something they are both unsure of. Surely Grady holds all of the answers to her past. Not really. The Lucie that Grady knew was secretive and she was all business when it came to her past. He knows very little. Her parents are dead, she went live with her aunt Helen and her uncle Eddy, and she left their house at eighteen and never looked back. That's the end of the story. That's all that Grady knows. That can't be it? Lucie wants and needs to know more. She knows that something painful happened in her past. There is an aching in her heart and she doesn't know why. Connecting with aunt Helen, her only living relative, just might be the key to her past. Once all the questions have been answered, will she still be the same Lucie that Grady once knew. Maybe the old Lucie is gone forever and Grady must find a way to love the new person that stands before him.

This book has been on my TBR for a loooooooooong time. I loved the title. Love Water Memory, three little words that hold so much mystery. How do they connect and what do they mean in the overall plot. It all just works. Lucie's mind is a blank slate, but her heart has never forgotten the pain of the past. When I first heard about the plot I was expecting to it be reminiscent of Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. In that book, the main character forgets who she is everyday and her husband has some sinister motives of his own. I kept waiting for the big reveal with Love Water Memory. What is it that keeps Lucie in the prison of her past? What's the big secret? There really isn't one. I could see where the plot was going. At first I was a little disappointed, but then I realized the ending was perfect. If there had been some big reveal or sinister motives at work, it wouldn't have felt organic to the story. The ending is rather open-ended. Lucie is on her way to becoming a new woman and I don't think it should be any other way!!

Rating: Superb

Note: I received a copy of the book from the publisher (Gallery Books). Love Water Memory was the January selection for She Reads