The After Wife

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  From author Melanie Summers, comes a heartfelt and uplifting tale of love, loss, and letting go...

After losing her husband, writer Abigail Carson has all but given up on life. Having spent the last year cocooned in her Manhattan apartment, Abigail is suddenly forced to find a new home where she can stretch her dwindling savings. Intent on isolation, she moves to a tiny village in Nova Scotia where she’ll have no one to interrupt her solitude.

Little does Abigail realize that small-town life offers far less privacy than the big city. With neighbors knocking on the door bearing homemade treats and invitations, Abby soon finds herself immersed in the lives of the people of South Haven. She forms an unlikely friendship with Liam Wright, the handyman renovating her dilapidated cottage, and his daughter, seven-year-old Olive.

As the dark cloud engulfing Abigail lifts, she begins to believe she may have found love again. But just as Abigail is ready to leap, she discovers Liam carries with him a shocking secret that will ultimately cause everything to unravel. Abigail must decide if she will turn away from his pain or open her heart in the most hopeless of circumstances.

Insightful, enchanting, and filled with hope, The After Wife reminds us of the importance of human connection and the inseparable nature of love and survival. 

One (or more) Sentence Summary: You all know I LOVE Melanie Summers' novels.  Did you know that The After Wife is not what I would call Melanie's normal genre (it's not chit-lit)?  Like all of Melanie's books, I didn't want it to end. I LOVED it!  

Abigail who has lost her husband to cancer, is a writer, has no children, and her family lives across the country.  She is easily able to shut herself in her apartment and hide from reality. Due to circumstances she must sell her apartment and return her book advance. She finds herself listening to one of her dreams (where her husband visits her) and moves to a tiny town, South Haven, Nova Scotia.  She thinks her and her cat can hide out there, but the little town doesn't believe in privacy.

When she hires Liam to make her house "livable" she has no idea what he and his daughter have gone through as well.  Abigail quickly learns to appreciate the small town and all her caring neighbors.  As she begins to live her life again, she begins to write as well.  Abigail opens her heart again, but will her past come to haunt her again?  

Abigail is so real that I want to move to South Haven!  I loved the characters in The After Wife and how the story developed.  Melanie hasn't made me cry until I read The After Wife. She does keep me up all night, because I can't put her books down once I start reading. It is such a lovely story of heart wrenching grief, followed by unexpecting love and learning it is okay to live again.

If you need a great book to read (and a cry), grab The After Wife.  I am sure you will love it too.

Would I Read Other Books by the Author:   Give me a Melanie Summers book any day.  I adore her books. See why I love her books: The Royal Treatment, The Royal Wedding, The Royal Delivery, The Honeymooner,  Whisked Away, and The Suite Life.

TWO TIME BRONZE MEDAL WINNER OF THE READERS' FAVORITE CHICK LIT AWARD FOR THE ROYAL TREATMENT (2017) AND WHISKED AWAY (2019).

Melanie made a name for herself with her debut novel, Break in Two, a contemporary romance that cracked the Top 10 Paid on Amazon in both the UK and Canada, and the top 50 Paid in the USA. Her highly acclaimed Full Hearts Series was picked up by both Piatkus Entice (a division of Hachette UK) and HarperCollins Canada. Her first three books have been translated into Czech and Slovak by EuroMedia. Since 2013, she has written and published eleven novels and three novellas. She has sold over a quarter of a million books around the globe.

In her previous life (i.e. before having children), Melanie got her Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta, then went on to work in the soul-sucking customer service industry for a large cellular network provider that shall remain nameless (unless you write her personally - then she'll dish). On her days off, she took courses and studied to become a Chartered Mediator. That designation landed her a job at the R.C.M.P. as the Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator for ‘K’ Division. Having had enough of mediating arguments between gun-toting police officers, she decided it was much safer to have children so she could continue her study of conflict in a weapon-free environment (and one which doesn’t require makeup and/or nylons).

Melanie resides in Edmonton with her husband, three sporty nerd children, their adorable but neurotic one-eyed dog, Lucy, and a small furry dictator named Nelson. When she's not writing novels, Melanie loves reading (obviously), snuggling up on the couch with her family for movie night (which would not be complete without lots of popcorn and milkshakes), and long walks in the woods near her house. She also spends a lot more time thinking about doing yoga than actually doing yoga, which is why most of her photos are taken ‘from above’. She also loves shutting down restaurants with her girlfriends. Well, not literally shutting them down, like calling the health inspector or something—more like just staying until they turn the lights off.

She is represented by Suzanne Brandreth of The Cooke Agency International. Melanie Summers also writes steamy romance as MJ Summers.

Website: www.mjsummersbooks.com

Email: mjsummersbooks@gmail.com

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