Two failing marriages, one abusive and the other just a matter of drifting apart – an unhappy husband and an unhappy wife. Put them together and you have broken hearts, broken promises and broken families. Dani was a good mother but couldn’t take the verbal and physical abuse of her spouse. Ian was a good father of two girls but felt that he and his wife were growing in opposite directions with opposite goals. An acquaintance begins, then feelings grow and then all hell breaks loose. Dani divorces her husband. Ian divorces his wife. Dani and Ian marry. End of story? No, that’s just the beginning. Dani wakes with a hangover, vague images of a company party (which she entered mixing pain pills and alcohol) and a brief spat on the lawn with her husband. Was it a dream or reality? She can’t be sure. The only thing she IS sure of is that her husband is missing without a trace.

At first I was a bit put off by the writing style and format this book took and then it begin to grow on me. The story starts at the end and works backwards. There is little dialogue and pages and pages of reflections of the past. By the end of the story I realized it couldn’t have been written any other way. By the end of the story, I wasn’t sure if I truly liked any of the characters but I’m okay with that too. There doesn’t always have to be a hero or heroine. Perhaps it just emphasizes the fact that we are all flawed, that we all have idealistic visions of how life and marriage should be and then can’t understand when we are blindsided by the truth. And it is always so easy when things go south to lay the blame on the actions of someone else. It is always easier to blame another than to look within.

I can’t say this is a feel good story. I can say that it is a story of how one act, any act, can have a lifelong effect on so many. It is a story of discovering that you can’t look to another for your own happiness – that, too, lies within.