(37) The Lost Husband by Katherine Center

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Lost Husband 

Pages: 304
Publication Date: May 7, 2013


I have shared before that I grew up in rural Iowa.  When I was a kid I wanted nothing more than to get out of the rural setting and find my way into a city where nobody knows your name.  Now here it is twenty years later and I would give anything to live in a rural setting - isolated in nature with no traffic and no HOA's (grrr!!).   Libby Moran gets that chance and is it wrong that I am so envious of her?

Libby Moran's life has been hell for the last three years.  There is no other way to describe it than hell.  Her husband was killed in a tragic car accident that severely injured their daughter. With that moment her perfect suburban life fell apart. The man who hit them did not have insurance, her husband had cashed in his life insurance to invest in a bad deal, she lost their house, and was forced to move into a small condo with her narcissistic mother. Libby is hanging on by a thread when she gets a letter from her long lost Aunt Jean, inviting her to move to her goat farm and help run the farm since she has health issues preventing her from doing as much as she used to around the farm.  Libby grasps the invitation as if it were her last hope and within days Libby and her two kids are headed to the Hill Country of Texas to live on Aunt Jean's farm.

Libby had no idea what to expect when she drives onto the farm and finds a quaint little cottage with a license plate roof.  She finds herself instantly attracted to the warmth of Aunt Jean and the sense of "home" that she has been missing since her husband passed away.  With the help of Aunt Jean's farmhand, the "Grizzly Adams-esque" O'Conner Libby catches on to the ways of farm life quite quickly.  The next few months are spent learning a lot about her family history, her marriage, and herself.  Is the farm where she is meant to be or is there something else out there?

Have you ever read a book where you just feel GOOD about life when you are finished?  I really think that The Lost Husband is a "feel-good" kind of book. Libby is such a great character, I enjoyed everything about her and I really enjoyed how the author avoided the "fish out of water" hi-jinx that can usually be found in "city girl moves to the country" books.  Oh, she let it be known that Libby was out of her element in subtle ways, like having to teach the kids what "go outside & play" really means and getting used to no television or internet.  There were just no silly mishaps involving the goats or muddy yards.  But anyway, I found myself envying Libby and her quiet farm evenings with a porch swing and all of the windows open.  And O'Conner?  More city girls would be moving to farms if every farm came with a man like O'Conner!

Bottom line, The Lost Husband was a sweet, tender, feel-good kind of read. I found myself enjoying the farm and Libby and Aunt Jean so much that I did not want the story to end. The Lost Husband is an enjoyable read that I think will have you longing for the farm, too.

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