One Wrong Turn. Deanna Lyn Sletten

Published: Lake Union Publishing
Date: June 20th 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 204
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Author via NetGalley
Rating:
                   

The words “I’m her husband” roll off Clay Connors’s tongue, but with his estranged wife lying in a coma—and no assurance that she’ll awaken—he knows he’s perilously close to losing everything. A singular, terrifying accident has left Jess Connors suspended between life and death. Now Clay is reunited with the family he hasn’t seen for two years, including the daughters he left behind.

In One Wrong Turn Deanna Lyn Sletten explores a family wounded and hurt by one of their members struggling with alcoholism. Clay has struggled for years with this disease, he loves his wife and two girls very much, but every time he endeavours to overcome it, some stress or other sends him over the edge. Now he hasn't been home with his family for two years, yet he has managed to stay sober for almost two years. However he is afraid to return home in case he falls into old patterns.

However when his wife Jess has a car accident he is called back by the medical people. Naturally his daughter Maddison, 12  years old is not over welcoming. She has seen her father repeatedly let them down, so her frosty challenging behaviour is very understandable.   Jilly, just 7 remembers less and is delighted to have her father with her.

The tension in the story comes from a few factors. Firstly the antagonism of Maddison towards her father, she holds out against him, continually giving him a challenging time. It breaks his heart because he loves her, understanding at the same time he is responsible for how she sees him. Maddie has been let down too many times, she has seen her father leave and not return, she is hurt and doesn't trust.

As well there is the fact that Jess is in a coma and nothing seems to be waking her. Will she wake? Will they have to go on without her? The continual visiting with no sign of life is wearing on them all and the hope and faith they have wavers for some of them.  

The question is can Clay keep his head above water with all this going on around him? He does have some good support people and it is to them he turns when times are really tough.

I enjoyed the read, the story moves along well, the struggles were real and I was cheering the family on as they dealt with a serious crisis.

Finding Libbie. Deanna Lynn Sletten

Published: Lake Union
Date: September 6th 2016
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 331
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Publisher/Author via NetGalley
Rating:
          

Poring over a dusty hatbox of photographs in her grandmother’s closet, Emily Prentice is shocked to discover her father was married to his high school sweetheart before meeting her mother.

In the summer of 1968, Jack and Libbie fall in love under the spell of their small town, untouched by the chaos of the late sixties. Though Libbie’s well-to-do parents disapprove of Jack’s humble family and his aspiration to become a mechanic, she marries Jack a year after they graduate high school. But soon their happiness crumbles as Libbie’s mental state unravels and she is drawn to alcohol and drugs. Despite his efforts to help her, Jack loses the woman he loves and is forced to move on with his life.

Now that Emily’s mother has passed away, Jack is alone again, and Emily grows obsessed with the beautiful woman who had given her father such joy. Determined to find Libbie, Emily pieces together the couple’s fragmented past. But is it too late for happy endings?

While Finding Libbie starts in the present day, it soon moves make to the 1960's, to that time of the Vietnam war, when women mostly still stayed at home and didn't go to work. When some were bored and fell prey to drugs and alcohol. 

Libbie comes from one of the most wealthy families in the town. Her family or at least her mother places her value on wealth to measure worth. Her sister was someone I really disliked, she was a real stirrer of the pot. Libbie's dad was good, if somewhat indulgent and with the penchant to look for a life of turning a blind eye to what was going on in his home.

Jack was a hard working young man, in love with Libbie but as their life progressed he could see all was not right with Libbie. (They married so young - as  many did in those days.) So when Jack's daughter discovers that he was married before the marriage to her own mother she is very curious as to what happened to Libbie. As the reader I was too, what did she do in the intervening years? How did this fragile, anxious but sweet young woman fare?

It is Emily - Jack's daughter who when she learns of Libbie in her father's life spends time searching for her.  It is a time for her too to re-evaluate how her own life is panning out and whether  the man she is with, is right for her.

The story comes eventually to a heartwarming and moving conclusion. I was amused at how well all the threads of the story were detailed out in the epilogue. It is rare that that happens!

The story examines mental illness and the lack of understanding in the past that led to much suffering. It is a story of second chances and growing into a place of contentment and self fulfilment.