From Eliza Maxwell, the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl, comes a gripping novel about the mysteries that haunt us and the twists of fate that can unravel them… intentions are brutally clear, and the old man isn’t about to let her follow through.
Jenna Shaw didn’t ask for Lars’s help, nor does she want it. After he pulls her from the brink, however, Jenna finds her desire to give up challenged by their unlikely friendship. In Jenna, Lars recognizes his last chance for redemption. And in her quest to solve the mysteries of Lars’s past and bring him closure, Jenna may find the way out of her own darkness.
But the truth that waits threatens to shatter it all. When secrets are surrendered and lies are laid bare, Jenna and Lars may find that accepting the past isn’t their greatest challenge. Can they afford the heartbreaking price of forgiveness?
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A splendid page-turner with unforgettable characters. Kudos to Eliza Maxwell for creating the curmudgeon anti-hero, Lars.
This is a book to read slow, quietly, and when you have the time to just “be”. Its a 4.7 star novel that you will reflect upon during and after reading it.
You have the cold dark Minnesota lakes, the small towns, the space and quiet for thinking or for ending it if the thinking is depressive, sad, grief stricken. Into this small community comes a woman, Jenna, alone and carrying memories that are too painful. And in this town lives Lars, quiet, maybe bitter or just use to speaking his mind.
They always say walk a mile in someones shoes before thinking you know that person….Lars sees in Jenna the hurt he has been carrying for years. He had a family but lives alone on the lake except for his grown son Owen and his outspoken daughter Hannah in town. They say once you save a person, they are your responsibility…..Lars makes it his mission to keep Jenna safe.
This is a novel about life, loss, forgiveness, and memories. This is also a mystery about a wife walking away with two children and coming back with none.
Jenna is haunted by the voice of her daughter Cassie. I wondered why Cassie and not anyone else …there is a perfect explanation later on.
There is Audrey and her mom Beverly and Diane and the librarian and Beckett, the dog.
Choices are made and must be addressed and dealt with….lies, deception, heart ache and redemption. I just wanted to nod to Lars and if permitted, hug him
The author writes, “a story really matters if the people in it matter. The people.” You’ll remember Jenna and Lars.
Great story about how God brings people into our lives who make a difference. Also, things are not always as they seem. Stories and lives have layers.
The Widow’s Watcher by author Eliza Maxwell took me by surprise and once I started reading I could not stop until the end. It is a very complex family drama with a mystery. It is about dealing with the greatest loss, a husband and three children in one family and two children in another. Of course, all losses may not be a death, but can be the loss of a beautiful spirit due to a mind which seems to go awry.
Jenna Shaw is suffering a tremendous grief. It is so great she wants to die. Life is just too hard to continue in the silence of her home. She starts driving.
Lars Jorgensen does not have time, energy, or kindness for other people. He has lived through a horrendous grief and wants to be left alone. He has gotten old and has a heart condition, but the shadow of sorrow which hovers over his cabin on a lake in Michigan is hard to bear.
I won’t post spoilers, but when Jenna and Lars meet, the sparks fly, and not in a good way! Jenna tries to cling to her secret hurt and extract herself from the world. She just happened to pick the wrong place to carry out her plan.
There are so many wonderful thoughts about life, living, families, and dealing with loss and grief in this book. It is sad, but the story is one which should be told and read. The mystery is an added bonus to the plot of the story. A very beautifully written story of family love and the reclaiming of hope in a life which had given up.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Favorite Quotes:
“They spend their whole lives walking away from you,” the kindergarten teacher had said on her little girl’s first day. “Your job now is to be there when they look back.”
“When the judge said, ‘For better or worse,’ I agreed quick enough.” Lars pinned her with his piercing gaze. “Nobody tells you how bad the worse can get.”
She marveled at his matter-of-factness. Was it an innate part of him, or was this what years and the grinding sands of loss did to a person? Shaped them into something smooth and hard and polished.
Hope was a frightening thing to rekindle. As impossible to control as a wildfire on a dry plain.
No matter how many years go by, the past never really lets you go.” She ran her hands up and down her arms, as if to ward off a chill. “It’s sewn in, like patches on one of my old granny’s quilts. You can run from it all you like, but it’s part of you. Goes where you go.
What exactly is involved in playing knick-knack, paddy-whack anyway? And why does it need to happen on my knee? The old man sounds kind of sketchy.
My Review:
I’m not exactly sure how to classify the genre of this exceptionally poignant and beautifully written book, it was a Contemporary piece with elements of Suspense, but it wasn’t a Thriller. In addition, I also noted considerable Family Drama, Women’s Fiction issues, mental illness, and an unsolved Mystery that spanned thirty years. With a regal wave of my well-manicured hand, I push all that to the side as I have decided I want new categories of Brilliant, Ingeniously Crafted, and Extraordinarily Well-Written.
Eliza Maxwell has word voodoo. I was quickly pulled into a disquieting and often uncomfortable vortex of unresolved issues and unsettling events, and oddly enough, I didn’t want to crawl back out. The characters were many and all were irreparably fractured, some hanging by a thread, and most were not always likable or admirable. Yet by the end of this uncannily insightful and maddeningly paced story, I understood that they had each been existing with and working at living through a long series of harrowing events as best they could, and I adored every single one of them by the time I arrived at the epilogue. I seldom cry but this eloquently evocative tale moved me, my eyes stung with an unusual wetness while my throat burned and felt constricted on several occasions. The storylines were brilliantly crafted, tautly written, and hard to quit as they were fraught with addictive tension and prickling intrigue. Sigh, my abused and bruised coronary muscle needs a rest, I believe I’ll be hitting the TBR for a comedy next.
“Forgiveness is hard. It’s painful. It’s giving when you have nothing left to give, from places you can’t afford to lose anything else.”
A book of grief, resilience and love, lots of love.
Two people who have each suddenly, lost their families by tragic circumstances meet by coincidence ( is it ever?). They learn from one another to forgive and fight their way back in the world.
This novel has mystery, mental illness, heartache and yet is very up-lifting.
I truly loved this story! Let me add, reading the last few chapter I needed a *box of tissues*.
“Mom, it was an accident” are the magic words in this beautiful book to be learned and accepted. Excellent!
/ 5 rounded down.
When I first started The Widow’s Watcher by Eliza Maxwell I was a little apprehensive because I was really in the mood for a good thriller/mystery, and I wasn’t getting a mystery vibe from the beginning of the book. However, as the book went on I got more of the mystery that I had been hoping for and really ended up loving it!
The Widow’s Watcher is about a woman named Jenna who has suffered an unbelievable tragedy, and an older man by the name of Lars who hasn’t had the best go of things himself. Jenna ends up on his lake in the middle of a brutal Minnesota winter only to get taken in by him and caught up in a decades-old crime revolving around his wife. The two form an unlikely friendship that I absolutely loved reading about. Lars is quite the old curmudgeon who reminded me quite a bit of Ove from A Man Called Ove. He’s very brittle around the edges but his heart is in the right place, and he really ends up being quite the match for Jenna (don’t worry, not in a romantic way!).
I loved that The Widow’s Watcher was based in my home state of Minnesota. Even though the town itself is fictional, it still mentioned quite a few places I was familiar with including the city I went to college in. I love when I can relate to the setting of a book, so this was a plus for me.
It hooked me in from the very start, and between the flow of the writing and the super short chapters, it made for a very fast read. This book isn’t all that long (less than 300 pages) so I think it is a good choice for someone looking for a shorter book they could read in one day.
I felt like the book was more about the emotions than the actual mystery that takes place. Even though the mystery is a good one, I got more caught up in the characters and the emotional aspects of both Lars and Jenna’s stories than the mystery itself. The end had me in a puddle, so just know that you may cry!
Final Thoughts: Even though I own all of her books, this is the first novel I have read from Eliza Maxwell. I think her writing is very good with excellent flow. The wording may be a little “simple” for an adult book (at least from what I’m used to), but I think that helped a lot with the readability for me and the speed at which I was able to read it. This book wasn’t quite what I had expected it to be, but I still ended up loving it, and I definitely think it is worth checking out (I also can’t wait to read her other books now). I would recommend this book to anyone who maybe isn’t so much about the mystery, but the emotional connection they can get from the book and its characters.
The Widow’s Watcher in 3-ish words: Satisfying, Relatable, Tear-Jerker
Lars Jorgensen carry’s an old pain he has never found away to heal, there is no closer, no answers only questions that have not been answered, they are hidden away in his wife’s mind.
Jenna Shaw also knows pain and loss and decides to find a place to end it. Upon seeing Jenna’s destination Lars stops her. There story is poignant, with lies, deception, but gratifying, with them both finding a way to heal, and has an elating ending.
Angela Dawe did an excellent job narrating.
I kept waiting for a mystery or something to emerge to make me care about what was going on. It seriously takes until at least Chapter 20 for this book to turn into something even mildly interesting, because until then it’s just us (the readers) following around a suicidal and barely communicative Jenna as she grieves for her husband and children. And oh what fun, she’s also got a once precocious and now sarcastic teenage daughter scolding her in her head. Add to that the utter joy of Jenna being trapped in a crappy little “town” in Minnesota with a 70-something cranky old man who’s also dealing with a lot of tragedy and loss. How is this a recipe for success?
This book has such high ratings, and even after reading through the reviews in Goodreads and Amazon. I can’t figure out why! I feel like everyone else read a different book than I did, one that was interesting, with great characters, and a rich story. I didn’t get any of that out of The Widow’s Watcher.
The opening scene crushed me once I understood what was happening. It was one of the best first chapters I’ve ever read. Jenna’s deep emotional pain and grief was not only understandable, it felt all too real. I was in her shoes for a quick moment, and so glad I could step back out of them. After reading the first chapter, I had to know more about Jenna and the fate of her family. The supporting cast was great too, and I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the story.
Well done.
A twist of fate puts a woman on a mission to end her own life in the path of a widower whose life is nearing it’s end who has his own family tragdies to bear. How they mend each other is a truly touching and satisfying read.
This was a story of two people helping each other heal through devastating heartache. The story starts where Lars is drawn to a woman on the ice and through his own heartache is annoyed that he has to rescue someone else. With Jenna stuck in this little midwest town with a broken down van she is stuck staying at Lars while his son Owen fixes her van. Lars and Jenna after a tumultuous beginning start building a friendship. Jenna gradually finds purpose to stick around and help Lars find some answers. The history of sadness they both carry is heavy and is felt through out the book.
I received this ARC through NetGalley and this review is of my own opinion.
This book was SO good! The emotions of Lars and Jenna, the pain they suffered was so well written I cried through a lot of the book. There were twists and turns that kept you guessing until the very end.
If you are looking for an emotional mystery this is the book for you!
Do you believe in fate? That is the question I asked myself when Jenna’s quest to find the perfect location to end her own suffering put her in Lars’s backyard. The perfect storm of events (a grumpy Lars who prevented her from doing what she set out to do, a broken down van not allowing her to leave, and the lack of hotels to stay at in the tiny, out of the way town) threw Jenna and Lars together – two people who were struggling with a sense of loss. Helping Lars with his seemed to help Jenna find a new purpose. I found this to be an incredibly powerful story of loss, love, hope, and friendship (with a bit of humor mixed in). I really enjoyed this story. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley- my opinions are my own.
Wow. The Widow’s Watcher is a book full of feels. Happiness, sadness, despair, hope – Eliza Maxwell manages to cram all of these plus so much more into this novel, and I absolutely love every bit of it. The characters all jump off the page, and the plot twist is crazy good – and unexpected! Thanks to the publisher for the ARC of this amazing book.
4.5 stars
“She had no one at all. There was only him. An old man with a broken heart.”
When Jenna loses everything, there is nothing to live for. So she makes up her mind and walks onto the ice of a frozen Minnesota lake. As you’ve read in the synopsis she is saved by Lars, who has his own demons he is struggling with. An unusual friendship develops between these two broken characters. I loved seeing this grow further into the story, and how they were healing each other in a way. To keep Jenna from leaving and finishing what she started, Lars asks her if she could look into the disappearance of his two young children twenty-nine years ago. This case is very mysterious and no one really knows what happened to these two children. Are they able to solve this case and bring peace to Lars after so many years? You’ll have to read and find out!
I have devoured every book by Eliza Maxwell, so I didn’t hesitate when I had to chance to read The Widow’s Watcher. I blindly trust this author to come up with stories that are original, unpredictable and engaging. This book was another great story by Eliza, I usually don’t read these type of stories but I just can’t put down her books. I am hooked from the start and look forward to seeing what will happen next. I love seeing old secrets being revealed and the ability of the author to shock me with them. Every character plays an important role in this book and they really brought this book to life. Like with the previous three books by this author, I couldn’t contain my tears again. There was a moment I had to tell myself that this is just a book, because I was getting too involved and sad. This book was heartbreaking, but also very uplifting. I am already looking forward to Eliza’s next book.
When two people who have experienced one of the worst nightmares a person can find each other, they form the most unlikely pair. Both broken; one old and one young; one newly battered; the other has learned to live with the nightmare; they reluctantly come together.
From the beginning, this tore at my heartstrings. I don’t want to imagine what they went through, but as the tale unfolds, Lars becomes the family that Jenna needs, and ultimately gives her purpose.
With twists and more than one unexpected turn, this story will keep you on an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end! This is a well-crafted story that will make you wonder what you would do in a similar situation.
#TheWidowsWatcher #LakeUnion
First I have to say thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishers for this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book starts out with much sadness and continues all the way. It’s a book so worth reading and shedding tears for. It had me from the start and I could not put it down. I read all day yesterday and today only stopping to cook and take a shower. Well sleep too but that is beside the point.
Two lost souls brought together due to so much loss and sadness. Two that would never have given each other a second look before. Not a love story at all. But full of a kind of love that will last forever.
Jenna came to Minnesota for one thing and only one thing. She was on a mission and was so determined to see it through that nothing was going to stop her.
Lars is an old man who has known so much loss and was not going to let Jenna do anything to ruin his pond and mess with the rest of his life.
They are drawn together in a way that will keep you wanting to know more. Wanting to know what happens next. Who did what and why. They each blame themselves for what life has given them. Jenna just wanted to die and Lars just wants answers of his own. But what will happen when those answers are finally there. Will they be able to live with the details of what happens.
This book will certainly make you cry. I don’t remember ever crying this much during a book but I promise it is worth it. It’s one that will pull you in and take you on a ride you won’t soon forget. The ups and downs will make you dizzy. Not a love story of the conventional sense but a story full of love.
I read The Unremembered Girl by this same author and loved it but this one is way better. It’s a heart wrenching, tender, broken story of family, love and loss.
A five star book for sure.