Blue Water

I loved this book. It captured me from the first page and wouldn't let me stop reading until I was done. The characters are so well developed and real that the reader feels like you really know and understand them. The story was well developed and took readers on a great journey.

Five WONDERFUL Stars!! BLUE WATER is a beautifully written novel full of charged emotion and deep sensitivity. A horrible accident involving two families leaves one family in unassuaged grief. In the case of both families, whose wives were once best friends, life must go on, but how? A change is dictated and the grief-stricken family makes it happen by leaving town and taking to the "blue water". In the process they leave the locus of their problem and attempt to let time do the healing. But the departure is not clean and neat, issues remain. Their journey becomes a remarkable story that will captivate and mesmerize the reader. Chapter 1 of Blue Water is as mesmerizing a chapter of writing as I have read this year, defining and pushing the storyline along briskly, taking us from the 'solution' to the heart-wrenching 'problem' and back again. The final resolution, if one can call it that, is true to life, and the final scene had me holding my breath.... This novel reminds me of the phrase: "you can run but you can't hide". Indeed! Brilliantly written and Highly recommended!! Five Stars! (Notes: *This review is based on an EBook digital download in Adobe Reader 7. Save a tree, download your books when possible. * With "Blue Water", I have placed A Manette Ansay on my literary "watch list" and I look forward to her future books. Because of "Blue Water", I recently bought a paperback of her novel, "Vinegar Hill" and it is my next read.)

A story of loss and the devastation it reaps is poignantly and beautifully written. Having lost my son five years ago and been given many books to comfort and soothe, this one is authentic and really nailed what it is like better than most. The book is honest and redemptive. I highly recommend it!

Typical of her novels, Ansay writes in memorable, intricate, edgy scenes that live with the reader long after the book is put down. This is her best yet. I'm buying Blue Water as gifts for several friends and family.

Blue Water is a powerful story of love and loss and the myriad complexities that surround them. The book is written in an exquisitely beautiful and compelling prose, a style that continues to earn praise for Ansay as of the best contemporary fiction writers out there.