Intense! This book was nothing but that! ( )

Wow. This was a humdinger of a philosophical novel for sure. It's the story of Morgan and Erin Masters and their two kids (Tristan and Maddie). It's a novel about family and all the good and bad (and in between) that comes with family. And boy is Morgan and Erin's family quite twisty and turn-ey.

The story starts very much In Media Res. Morgan left Erin and the kids three weeks previously without explanation even to Erin and then she gets attacked and seriously injured, and suddenly she isn't who she used to be and everyone has to deal with that from her partner to her friends and her children.

Before the attack Morgan's an art professor with a hard childhood. Erin's background is difficult as well. She has a brother Chris and a Mom who's still alive, but her home life had a big upheaval when she was a young child and in some ways she hasn't totally recovered from that either. They're quite the pair.

There was a lot that was never explained fully in this story. A lot of it was hinted at, and I probably could guess by the subtext what the missing parts were, but they were never stated and I'm of two minds on it. On the one hand I think not having the nitty gritty details helped the story flow quite a lot. I was sucked in and stayed sucked in for the whole story. On the other hand at the end of the story I sorta felt like I hadn't really finished the book because there were questions (how exactly did the scar happen, etc.) that were just left hanging.

But, overall, I really liked this novel. It was both heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time. A complicated story about even more complicated issues like love, trust, and memory. A definitely four stars.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. ( )