At age 23, Frances Louise Carter falls deeply and blindly in love with handsome and charming David Kuspin. There are plenty of red flags, but Frannie ignores them. After a year of going together, they plan to be married in a modest ceremony. Frannie's mother assures her that she will always remember that special day, feeling completely loved and cherished.
On her wedding day, Frannie feels no love and affection from David, and on her wedding night, she definitely does not feel cherished. The scales have fallen from her eyes, and she spends much of that night crying into her pillow. She now knows that the man she married is not the one she loved. She rises early, writes a letter of explanation, and leaves the hotel to catch a bus home.
Thus begin two years of soul-searching and introspection. Frannie chooses to do much of this sitting by a peaceful pond, talking to the ducks. They become her closest companions and most trusted confidantes. Emerging at last from her emotional cocoon, she's invited to go fishing with a mere acquaintance and ends up falling deeply in love once again. Hank Childers becomes the true love and treasured center of her life-not least because he loves feeding and talking to the ducks as much as she does.
Frannie's heart is always open and vulnerable when it comes to family affairs. That begins with her parents and her older sister, Pat. Pat's husband and his parents, Hank's parents and his two younger siblings-all play major roles in the story. The members of the three families all share in each other's joys, successes, failures, and eventual grief.
The many twists and turns will keep you reading to the surprising, healing conclusion. Enjoy the book!
Mary Alice Baluck lives near Youngstown, Ohio. Her first novel was Heaven's Doorway (2020).
