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REVIEW

"A tale that will long be remembered"

Forty-five years old Elizabeth feels her marriage to former Superbowl MVP Jackson Shore is failing as she feels she has lost her identity to her children and her spouse. With the kids in college, Elizabeth needs something else to overcome the empty nest syndrome and her perception of lost purpose, but concludes that her relationship to Jack is not the answer to her needs. Jack has his problems too as he threw away a golden opportunity in the broadcast booth due to drug abuse and is struggling one step at a time towards redemption.

Jack obtains the break he needs when Portland, Oregon station intern Sally Maloney provides him a tip on a story involving college basketball superstar Drew Grayland. As he seeks collaborating proof on Drew's wrongdoing including date rape, his own marriage is collapsing. As Jack breaks the Drew story, Elizabeth withdraws further from him. Is this marriage between two college sweethearts over or will they find a path to happiness together?

This is an insightful middle age relationship tale that goes deep inside the psyche of the two lead characters, in which love no longer fosters communication. The story line takes the reader inside the head mostly of the disenchanted Elizabeth, but also provides a chance to see what motivates a disgraced former golden boy to seek his former glory. Though the ending is a bit too idealistic for the tone of the plot, fans of powerful dramas with strong characters will want to read Kristine Hannah's DISTANT SHORES.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 15, 2002

SUMMARY

Sometimes ordinary life can be a remarkable journey...

Elizabeth and Jackson Shore married young, raised two daughters, and weathered the storm of youth as they built a family together. From a distance, their life together looks perfect. They are the envy of their friends. But when their girls leave home, Jack and Elizabeth find themselves left in a relationship that has gone stale. In their suddenly empty and quiet house, they each begin to wonder about the roads not taken.

Then Jack is offered the job of his dreams—across the country from the home that makes Elizabeth feel secure and protected. She makes the difficult decision to put her own needs aside and follow him. It is what she's always done.

Once there, she feels lost, as empty and cold as her husband's new corporate apartment. She misses her beautiful cottage by the sea on the Oregon Coast. Now, when she stands at her bedroom window—alone, because her husband is working—all she sees is the building across the street. Instead of the beach music she loves, she hears honking horns and screeching tires.

A family tragedy once again turns Elizabeth's world upside down. In the aftermath, she finds herself questioning her life—her choices, her marriage, her long-forgotten dreams. In a daring move that will shock her husband, her friends and her children, she chooses to let go of the woman she has become and to reach out for the woman she wants to be.

 

Distant Shores
by Kristin Hannah

Ballantine Books
July 1, 2002
ISBN #034545071X
Hardcover
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Other Books by
Kristin Hannah

The Things We Do for Love
Between Sisters
On Mystic Lake
If You Believe
Distant Shores
Between Sisters
With Love
Summer Island
With Love
Summer Island
Once In Every Life
Angel Falls
On Mystic Lake
When Lightning Strikes


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