Search - Here on Earth

Reading this book is like watching a train wreck. You know something unavoidable and horrifying is going to happen, but you just can't look away. I did get a little impatient with the heroine, who allows herself to be drawn into an obviously toxic relationship, but Hoffman gets points for daring to write about love lost and found that perhaps should have stayed lost. She loses points, however, for choosing Thoroughbred horse racing as a background plot point and not bothering to have someone check the simple facts that she is obviously unaware of.

This story about a woman returning to her past didn't resonate with me like I thought it would. Afterall, it is an Oprah choice (that's sarcasm in case you couldn't tell). The story was interesting enough, but the characters just seemed very one-dimensional and it felt as though it was written on a whim, without real thought about what made each of them tick.

After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis - the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her - the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited.

A modern day Wuthering Heights, this book is beautifully written. Alice Hoffman is a wonderful author

Hoffman's writing style is engaging and this book was a quick read. I would not classify it as a love story, though, unless it is about lessons behind the main plot, as control and abuse should never be mistaken for love. Probably a mark of good writing, if a difficult situation is capable of affection a raw nerve.

I enjoyed this book. A page turner for me and would recommend.

A moving story of family love and the forces that threaten to undermine it.