A review by howifeelaboutbooks
Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge

5.0

A woman comes to standing in the San Francisco Bay. She doesn't know who she is or how she got there. After being rescued by a kind swimmer, the woman is taken to a mental hospital. There, she learns that someone has been looking for her. Lucie has a fiance, Grady, who has been frantically looking for her for over a week, posting flyers and making public pleas on the news stations. He is on his way from Seattle to come get her; the doctors think she will get her memory back once she sees someone familiar. Though parts of Lucie and Grady seem to fit together perfectly, there is a rift between them, and seeing him does nothing to bring back Lucie's memory. She's sent home with advice to see a psychologist for her dissociative memory disorder and is determined to compile her life story.

     This was an amazing book. I was hooked from the premise and opening lines, and it didn't fail to deliver. There is an underlying heartbeat of suspense, as you wonder if Grady and Lucie will come together or break up completely - with the deadline of their previously-planned wedding looming just two months from the date Lucie is found. The story isn't overdone or sappy in the least - the relationship between Lucie and Grady is the most honest and realistic I've read in a long time. There are other elements that come together to round this story out, and it drags you in and demands you finish it quickly, with the story lingering in your mind long after you're done.