Moonlight on Butternut Lake

4.5 stars.

Moonlight on Butternut Lake is the third installment in Mary McNear's magnificent Butternut Lake Trilogy. This latest release is a beautiful novel of healing but it is the heartwarming romance between protagonists Mila Jones and Reid Ford that makes it such an outstanding read.

Mila desperately needs to put some distance between her and her abusive husband Brandon so a temporary job at a secluded cabin is perfect for her. The only downside is her new patient, Reid, has already scared off two other home health care aides, but she is confident she can handle him. He certainly lives up to his well deserved reputation, but Mila is not intimidated by her ill-tempered patient. Despite her best efforts to coax Reid out of his show more self-imposed exile, he will not co-operate with her or his concerned brother, Walker. However Mila refuses to concede defeat and slowly, but surely, Reid begins to participate in everyday life. Just as their relationship deepens, Mila's past comes back to haunt her and threatens to destroy their newfound happiness.

Mila's childhood was anything but happy so it is understandable that she was unable to resist the attention that Brandon showered on her. There were several warning signs that she ignored before they married, but he easily charmed her into overlooking them. It did not take long for her to realize she had made a terrible mistake marrying him, but leaving him was next to impossible. Luckily she discovered a kindred spirit who recognized that Mila was in a very dire situation and she offered her the opportunity to safely escape from Brandon. Although Mila never stops looking over her shoulder, she steadily regains her confidence and she finally begins to trust again.

Reid's childhood was just as unhappy as Mila's and he found solace in making a success of the boat making business he co-owns with Walker. Before his car accident, Reid was a workaholic whose romantic entanglements were casual and short-lived. In the aftermath of the accident, he refuses to co-operate with his family and he is plagued with PTSD. Everyone tiptoes around him so he is stunned when Mila finally stands up to him. This becomes a turning point in his recovery, but he continues to retreat from her efforts to convince to get treatment for his PTSD. Their relationship deepens as Mila helps him cope with his nightmares and their mutual attraction catches both of them off guard.

The relationship between Reid and Mila is very uneasy in the beginning. Although Reid is gruff and reclusive, she instinctively trusts him. She is frustrated by his self-pity and ingratitude and after she calls him on it, he begins to interact with the people in his life. Reid finally takes stock of his life and once he admits it is severely lacking, he decides to make some much needed changes. This coincides with Mila's ongoing recovery from her abusive marriage and their relationship slowly turns romantic. However, Mila has been less than forthcoming about her past and she does not see how she can possibly have a future with Reid.

Moonlight on Butternut Lake is a very touching novel that deals with some serious, true to life issues. Mary McNear handles these difficult topics with a great deal of sensitivity. The resolution of the various story arcs is unhurried and although some parts of the storyline are a little predictable, the novel is still quite enjoyable. The romance between Reid and Mila is sweet and it is such a delight watching them help one another heal the wounds of their respective pasts. This heartfelt addition to The Butternut Trilogy can be read as a standalone, but I heartily recommend the entire series. show less

Very readable but pretty light fare. I enjoyed it but had a few problems. First of all the hero, Reid. I get that he had been in a really bad accident and had a long road back but the way it was presented felt off. He was well on the road to recovery and had a very good prognosis. No one ever said he was not going to walk again or lead a very full, normal life. Why then did he lock himself in his room and stare at the walls and spend his entire time pitying himself? Yes he had PTSD but the author didn't seem to be saying that it was bad enough to cause him to be such a whiny ass. I didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for the heroine. She did marry an abuser after he already hit her once. Still people do make mistakes. But she had said show more that she'd been having doubts before hand so it wasn't like she was totally over the moon for him. But worse than that, she totally led Reid on and led him to believe they could have a relationship. She never bothered to tell him that she was married and would be unable to ever get a divorce. I expected him to have a bigger reaction to the news when he finally found out pretty much only because the husband had hunted her down and was coming to get her. I did like the way the hero treated her and approached her sexually as he had figured out that she had been hurt. I do think that he probably should have asked her if she was married since he had pretty much figured out that she was running from a man.

I did like the glimpses of what the husband was doing but felt that he was dealt with too easily after all that build up. All that tension just fizzled out.

But the writing was nice and the main characters were well developed even if I didn't really care for what the author did with them. There was another couple, Frankie and Jessica, who were briefly mentioned and who I was interested in and I wonder if they might eventually have a story. show less

Urgh. Slow, slow, slow. ‘Nuff said. (Other than the publisher gave me an ARC.)

OK, not enough said. Here are the issues.

The writing doesn’t have much vividness to it. That’s mostly about voice. This voice is fairly clean and simple, which in and of itself is fine. But it needs to be matched by something else…either characters that intrigue reader, or plot elements that captivate, or a combination of a little of each (or even a lot of each).

The author doesn’t really show much on either of these other fronts. Perhaps this is because this is the book out of a series, and a few have come before. But every book in a series needs to work as a stand-alone. While this does work as a standalone, it’s possible that the flaws in this show more novel appear because readers of the previous novels will have much more background coming to this one.

Since I can’t judge this as part of a series, I have to judge it as a standalone. And that produces a very low rating.

DNF: no star rating available.

If you like stand alone novels with stunning voice that blends with both character and scenery, check out [b:The Family Made of Dust: A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback|31692655|The Family Made of Dust A Novel of Loss and Rebirth in the Australian Outback|Laine Cunningham|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1472357358s/31692655.jpg|6308645]. show less

Terzo libro della serie Butternut Lake.
Per sfuggire al marito violento Mila si rifugia a Butternut per assistere Reid Ford sopravvissuto ad un terribile incidente che lo ha minato nel corpo e nello spirito. Una convivenza che si presenta molto difficile sin dall'inizio, in quanto Reid respinge qualsiasi tentativo di avvicinamento da parte di chiunque, familiari e amici compresi. Ma la necessità di Mila di nascondersi le darà la forza di instaurare lentamente con Reid un rapporto di fiducia che sarà anche la chiave di volta per entrambi per affrontare i fantasmi del loro passato.
Un'altra bellissima storia sulle seconde possibilità, dove ritroviamo anche i personaggi già conosciuti nei precedenti libri e nel quale vengono trattati show more con garbo anche argomenti importanti quali la violenza domestica e i rapporti difficili con i genitori. La storia d'amore che lentamente si sviluppa tra i due protagonisti è raccontata con grande sensibilità e dolcezza, con uno stile fluido e accattivante che mi ha conquistato ancora una volta. Spero di poter leggere presto ancora le altre storie della serie già pubblicate in lingua e non ancora tradotte. show less

This was my least favorite of the three (at least so far) Butternut Lake novels. The plot was entirely predictable, a mix of "Sleeping with the Enemy" and "Me After You." The characters were flat, especially compared to Caroline, Jack, Daisy and Will from Butternut Summer. Maybe McNear tried to write too many novels too quickly, but this one was paint-by-numbers women's fiction.