In At the Water’s Edge Maddie and Ellis are a married couple living off his parents who along with their friend Hank humiliate themselves at a holiday party. Unfortunately they also humiliate rich daddy and after a blow-up they get themselves tossed. So Hank and Ellis have the idea to cross the ocean during World War II and go looking for the Loch Ness Monster.
I really like Sara Gruen. I can say after reading this her books aren’t really surprising but they’re fun and sport excellent characterization. But Maddie’s story was one I definitely enjoyed reading. There were a couple things that happened to be pluses to me.
Setting: I love tales in Scotland and Ireland. It’s a bit of a dream to live in one of those places one day. But that’s a whole other deal. I have to admit while reading I was mentally photo shopping the story into Outlander for scenery purposes.
Maddie: Maddie’s wake up is severe yes but considering its war related I found it very believable. I also thought her past story and how she wound up with Ellis and behaving as she did was reasonable as well. It actually went away to making me feel sorry for her and making me understand her without making it over the top trauma.
There is a love story here of course and I won’t get into that but to me I liked that it was more Maddie’s friendships with other women that really pushed her out of her comfort zone and into seeking something better for herself.
Other elements: Ellis and Hank do not improve upon further consideration and I pretty much despised them. There chasing of the monster is interesting in that due to family history Ellis is both trying to show up daddy and prove him right. There are some supernatural elements and local superstitions throughout but they never go overboard or even seem like something people wouldn’t actually believe.
Recommend: All in all this falls into my “Lifetime Movie I would like to watch” book genre. I enjoyed it, loved the setting and the time period and really rooted for Maddie and her friends.