Title: Love Water Memory
Author: Jennie Shortridge
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publication Date: January 14, 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books
Event organized by: Literati Author Services, Inc.
Synopsis
If you could do it all over again, would you still choose him?
At age thirty-nine, Lucie Walker has no choice but to start her life over when she comes to, up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay, with no idea how she got there or who she is. Her memory loss is caused by an emotional trauma she knows nothing about, and only when handsome, quiet Grady Goodall arrives at the hospital does she learn she has a home, a career, and a wedding just two months away. What went wrong? Grady seems to care for her, but Lucie is no more sure of him than she is of anything. As she collects the clues of her past self, she unlocks the mystery of what happened to her. The painful secrets she uncovers could hold the key to her future—if she trusts her heart enough to guide her.
Kota's Review
This is my first experience reading Ms Shortridge’s work, so I was unsure what to expect.
Love, Water, Memory is the story of Lucie who is located in a dissociative state. Lucie has no memories and this story is her journey of trying to find herself.
Lucie is engaged to Grady, with their wedding only months away. Both are in professional careers, with Lucie running her own recruitment firm. Clearly with Lucie’s disappearance and subsequent memory loss – her job is not high on the agenda. Lucie and Grady live a reasonably solitary life, with work taking priority – of course, now that Lucie has no memory of this life – everything is about to change.
There are potentially two ways I could review this book. The first is that this is a sweet tale of one woman’s journey to learn how to love and be herself, regardless of her past.
The second is less romanticised. I mean I am sure that theme still underpins the story, and the element of trauma is sad, but unfortunately I felt little for the characters in this story. I did not feel the emotion or the trauma associated with Lucie’s past or present, which meant that I felt little empathy for her. Grady – I didn’t quite understand. He seemed to be a confused little boy in a man’s body who didn’t endear himself to me either. His indecision about all aspects of his relationship with the ‘new’ Lucie did not help me understand his own self awakening. The secondary characters while they seemed to sort of fit – added very little to the story aside from white noise.
To be honest – I found Ms Shortridge’s writing style frustrating. This story was full of description and narration of unnecessary things. The story unfolded at a snail’s pace, and truly felt like it went nowhere. There are elements of the story that seem inconsistent, and the book ended with so many questions that were unresolved leaving me wondering what the point was….
Love, Water, Memory did not do it for me – but that said – when I reflect on my above statement about reviewing it in two ways, if I consider the first – this story could well be seen as a sweet journey that two people who have been affected by the pace and complexities of life, have been given a second chance to reconnect and find love again – they get a do over. If I consider it from that perspective and don’t analyse it too much – it’s a nice read.. it goes along… and you see the pieces of the puzzle coming together in a nice way. That was if I was to consider it that way!
So to be fair to you readers – you can take this review either way. I am rating this book a 3. On our rating scale that makes it adequate, and it was – I guess. You could read it – and some will without a doubt enjoy it, but it is not up there on the rave about scale for me.
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Purchase Links
About the Author
Jennie Shortridge has published five novels: Love Water Memory,When She Flew, Love and Biology at
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