Moonlight on Butternut Lake

April 15, 2015

Mila Jones is warned ahead of time that she's the third home health aide for Reid Ford, but she's desperate. She's fleeing an abusive husband, and an isolated lake cabin in northern Minnesota is as far as she can go. Mila isn't prepared to feel so afraid and overwhelmed. Reid, a workaholic, is temporarily in a wheelchair following a car accident. He wasn't found for three days, and those days continue to haunt him every night in his dreams. He had emotional issues even before the accident--anger at the father who left him and his brother years earlier. McNear (Up at Butternut Lake) returns to familiar territory with a story of two lonely, injured people who discover that gentleness and communication will enable them to reach each other despite their histories. VERDICT McNear skillfully shows the strength and encouragement a woman needs to draw upon in order to leave her abuser. She successfully conveys the power an offender has over his victim, the manipulation, and the physical and mental wrongdoing that lead to fear. This solid story will find an audience among readers who enjoy novels involving social issues.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2015
Mila Jones is so deprived of a normal, loving childhood that she's susceptible to the overtures of devoted Brandon Stewart. But Mila soon realizes that Brandon's love is obsessive and that she's in an abusive marriage. So she runs away from Minneapolis to Butternut Lake, hundreds of miles to the north, where she takes a job as health-care aide to Reid Ford, a churlish man still in pain from a near-fatal car accident, whose two previous aides didn't stay long. As Mila contends with her difficult patient, she worries about Brandon finding her, despite the care she took in leaving. In the third entry in her Butternut Lake series, McNear brings back Allie and Walker Ford (from Up at Butternut Lake, 2014), Reid's sister-in-law and brother, whose care for their family members contrasts sharply with Mila's own experiences. While her plot has a certain predictability, notably in the changing relationship between patient and caregiver, McNear keeps an aura of suspense to the climax. A heartwarming story of the power of love, family, and persistence against odds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)