The Water Keeper by Charles Martin

These kind of stories are deeply disturbing. Sex-trafficking, aka the flesh trade, makes me ill to my stomach. It's hard to believe there are such evil people in this world. I have little knowledge about this particular way of grooming women/girls. This method takes time, effort and patience and A LOT of money. These men lure women & girls to them rather than grab them off the street. 

This first book was mysterious in a lot of ways since we really don't know who Murphy Shepherd is or why he does what he does. We also don't know who some of the main characters are, like Bones, and how he fits into Murphy's life. I didn't realize until much later in the book that "Fingers" is a fictional character in one of Murphy's books. And I certainly didn't know what was in the orange lunchbox that Murphy kept strapped to the front of his boat!

What we DO know is that Murphy has dedicated his life to saving girls who have become part of the flesh trade. He has the resources and knowledge to track girls all over the world. He also has an incredibly strong body with powerful skills and a ton of weapons at his disposal. It's hard to believe that a human body can suffer as much damage as Murphy's has and still be alive. With as many times he has been shot, stabbed and beaten, I'm surprised that he hasn't died from a raging infection from his multiple wounds! And speaking of that, Gunner, his canine assistant, has his own share of injuries which he survives miraculously. (I was unhappy that Murphy kept taking Gunner everywhere with him since the poor dog was always at risk for losing his life! I was especially upset when Gunner was swept off the boat during that horrendous storm.)

Murphy is a special person indeed. His love of Marie alone is astounding. No matter how deeply she hurts him, he continues to forgive her and love her more than anyone else in the world. There are not many people that only love one person in their lifetime. I'm not sure his love of Marie was even healthy after a certain point, but this book is all about healing from the inside out. Our bodies heal faster than our hearts.

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes is one of my favorite authors. She is a talented storyteller and I love reading her stories. I also love learning about something I previously knew nothing about. I had no idea that ships brought war brides to their new husbands in their husband's countries. What brave women they were! First of all, they were brave to marry a soldier from a different country in wartime. Secondly, they were brave to leave their home countries and families to sail across the globe to their husband and his family. I would guess that there were some "second thoughts" about this on both sides of the ocean! How awful for the women that received the "go back home" messages. Yikes.

The four women from Australia featured in this story were shockingly different from each other. They made for interesting cabin-mates to be sure. Margaret & Frances were my favorites. Margaret was so kind and helpful, despite her obvious discomfort from being far along in her pregnancy. I just wish she would have left her little dog, Maude Gonne, at home in Australia with her family! A ship is no place for a dog, at least a dog that must be hidden. The poor thing. Dogs need to run & play. I still feel crushed that Maudie didn't make it to England. 

And if Margaret was an "open book", then Frances was the opposite. I had no idea what her story was. I did wonder why it took so long for her to help the Captain! I kept waiting for the Captain to ask for her help, since he had to know she was a nurse who served during the war. I also thought that Frances would offer her help to him since she seemed to know that he was hurting. Goodness it took a long time for the two of them to connect! I was incredibly happy that the Captain saved Frances from "ruin" and being sent back to Australia.

After I finished the book, I had to go back and read the beginning again. When a book starts at the end of a story, and then goes back to the beginning of the story for 400 pages, I sometimes forget where it "ended", so to speak. Since you don't know the characters at the beginning of a book, it's difficult to absorb the meaning of it all - or even who's involved in the opening scene.

Jojo Moyes doesn't necessarily always have a "happy ending" to her books, but this one was definitely satisfying. She had me wondering for awhile, but fortunately, it turned out the way I wanted it to.

Wendy's Rating: ****