This book only took me two days to read, Erin Bartels is quite the storyteller, and the plot is compelling. But at the end of the day, the ending of the tale left me unsatisfied.
Melanie and Olivia lost their parents a decade earlier in a tragic accident that Olivia's friend, Justin, caused. While Olivia buried herself in finishing school and becoming a prosecuting attorney, Melanie took her time to sort through the life that had been theirs and dispose of their parents' estate. Olivia rarely connected to her remaining family, including her sister, in all the years since her parents' deaths. Melanie was able to forgive Justin and move on in her grief, while Olivia wasn't able to forgive and just stuffed her grief into a forgotten corner and never dealt with it.
It was a fluke that Olivia answered her phone call on that really nice day in March when her sister proposed getting together for a backwoods hike. Melanie allowed Olivia to do the planning for the trip because Olivia left nothing to chance as much as was in her power.
In spite of all of Olivia's planning, there was no way to plan for the unexpected events along the way. Without realizing it, both women are searching for answers. Melanie subscribes to an "all-inclusive" cafeteria style belief system that cherry-picks from all of the various belief systems. Olivia believes that there is One Truth, but she doesn't know that that One Truth is.
In their seeking, neither woman comes to a final conclusion in the book and that hanging feeling left me totally unsatisfied with the whole book. The quality of writing is amazing, but that one thing spoiled the book for me. Three stars.
Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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