Devoted mother Cassie Carter is hard working and dedicated to running her small farm in Georgia. She tends to her home and sickly son daily while her truck driver husband is away on long hauls across the country. Her life and values take a sharp turn when a handsome and intelligent construction worker disrupts her daily routine. Her priorities shift and everything she keeps in her comfort zone is … is threatened.
Damaged romantic Paul Hamilton has a void in his life that leaves him wandering from affair to affair, empty and unfulfilled. He identifies with the haunting poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, yearning to capture an elusive love. One day, in an unexpected place, he discovers the love he is seeking, but she is out of his reach and he runs the risk of irreparably damaging the delicate balance he tries to maintain in his life.
In the Duck Springs Affair, Paul and Cassie’s worlds collide and explode. Will what they offer each other sustain and give them what they need out of life and love? Or, are they doomed to suffer the tragic consequences of their decisions as each searches for the perfect love?
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John Isaac Jones is an incredible story teller. His characters are well developed and his descriptions are spot on. When I close my eyes and listen, I really feel like right there.
While sitting and feeding the ducks, Cassie is sharing the biggest secret from her past. After 50 years, she feels the need to share her story while she still can. This is her story…
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.
This book was SO enjoyable that, once I picked it up, I could not put it down. I literally read all night long to finish it! The plot was well-developed and had just the right amount of Southern charm and quaint “small town Georgia” feel. And, I should know, as I am a small town Georgian, myself! The plot line was interesting and moved at a good, steady pace, never stalling or going flat.
The characters are rich and vibrant, full of warmth, passion and depth and are written in such a manner that you come to feel as if they are old friends you’ve always known. It was very easy to get wrapped up in the feelings and emotions of the central characters and experience them in tandem. The deep loneliness, frenetic sexual angst, hollow longing, all-consuming joy of true love and soul-rending despair were all palpable.
The descriptive details were outstanding and invitingly drew me in. I could very nearly smell the fragrant peach trees, fresh hay and old, wooden timbers of the barn. I felt the hot, summer sun baking my skin, the oppressive, humid air sitting heavy in my lungs and the chilly water of the river being playfully splashed on me. I could have sworn I could hear the wind rustling with a whisper through the crisp autumn leaves, the squawking and quacking of the plethora of ducks bobbing on the water’s surface and the low, plaintive bawling of the baby calf that had been separated from his mother during milking time. I could almost taste the delicate sweetness of the rustic peach pie, the cool, refreshing purity of the water at the natural spring and the ambrosial headiness of passion’s first kiss.
The overall theme of the book put me in mind of one of my very favorite movies, The Bridges of Madison County. In Cassie, you have the lonely and devoted, but sexually frustrated and emotionally neglected farm wife. Austin is the husband whose work takes him out of town for extended stretches of time, leaving Cassie on her own to manage the care of the farm, the planting of the garden, the canning of the harvest and the raising of their sickly child, Timmy. Although Austin is a kind man and a solid family provider, he has ceased to see the beauty and sensuality in Cassie the woman. Intimate relations have become a chore that he dutifully and quickly dispatches with, one or twice a month, with no thought to Cassie’s needs, desires or feelings.
Paul is the exciting, interesting stranger who has seen what the world is like beyond the property lines of Cassie’s little farm. He is sweet, tender, romantic and willing to talk about his thoughts and inner feelings and, in turn, listen when Cassie does the same. He fuels her ever-burgeoning desires, sates the heat of her passion and quenches her thirst for companionship and knowledge beyond the scope of her small town imaginings.
I loved the quotations from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem Annabel Lee. Not only was it befitting of the characters and circumstances in this story, but it is my favorite work by Poe. So, I was kind of partial to its usage. 🙂
This book made me laugh, cry, sigh and wax nostalgic. Oh, and there’s a real humdinger of a twist that comes out of nowhere and leaves you stunned and emotionally annihilated. Just thought I’d throw that 411 in there! I am really looking forward to reading more from Jones.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to read and leave a voluntary and honest review should I choose to do so.