Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
416 pages
Completed 1/1/10
This book was pretty far-fetched, to tell you the truth, but was written in such a way that you couldn't help feeling raw emotion for these characters. While almost completely unrealistic in all senses - legally, physically, medically, and logically - the story did end up being a good one.
A ruined psychiatrist returns to her small town to help her police chief sister on her latest case. A young girl had emerged from the woods accompanied by a wolf pup. Seemingly untamed both physically and emotionally, the little girl's identity is unknown. Rallying to find her parents, the two sisters, along with - inexplicably - their whole town - tackles her case head-on. After nurturing her and bringing the girl out of her feral state, adoption papers are filed - but something holds up the process and breaks the reader's heart; I literally cried, which I can't remember that I've ever done during a novel. While engrossed in the book, you can't help but believe in the story; it's only afterwards that I realized just how improbable it was.
This novel was pretty wordy...and I could have done without the inevitable fairytale-like romances, but overall it was an okay read, made possible by it's talented author. Kristin Hannah does have numerous other titles (fans of Jodi Picoult tend to like her work), but she seems to be more of a romance author than anything, which is definitely not my preferred genre.
