After putting up with these folks for hours, we get the non-ending of all time. Let's not forget the conclusion! There is none. The only truly admirable characters are amazing teenager and traumatized preschooler. Unbelievable not because an 18-year-old can't be worldly, wise, perceptive and insightful (perhaps the author was the model for this perfection), but because it would be a miracle for her to have been produced by these parents.

It takes unbelievably wise 18-year-old daughter to point out reality for Mom. Why? She's such a dedicated mother! She wants to give her new child the same absent, cheater father she burdened her teenage daughter with rather than the basically good man and traumatized child she loves and who love her. Yeah, men always put up with that! After getting both dad and daughter dependent on her, she abandons hero and child. Heroine rescues and plays mother to hero & hero's needy child, sleeps with hero though knowingly pregnant by - and planning to return to - cheating hubby. Hero has emotionally and largely physically abandoned his needy preschooler, drinking to obliterate terrible memories and guilt (at least he has motivation). Where to start? SPOILER ALERT: The heroine is a doormat except when sequentially betraying cheating husband and then the 'hero,' her old friend/new love. By the end, I started to wonder if Hannah had filled this book with characters from her life, supposedly to honor them but subconsciously getting revenge by demonstrating how shallow, confused, and obnoxious they are. I rarely hate a book, but what a let down! The only thing great is the narrator - Ericksen is always fabulous.

On mystic lake by kristin hannah