Jennie had done that herself a number of years earlier. In the midst of a manic episode, she had deserted Thomas and their two daughters, choosing, instead, a life of shameless debauchery.
Perhaps she was shocked when Thomas filed for a divorce. Perhaps it was the influence of a preacher who took an interest in her. Perhaps she simply cycled back toward normal.
Whatever the cause, years later, when she again made contact with her family, she was a different person. Even so, they wanted nothing to do with her.
But time moves on. Circumstances change.
Jennie has been accepted by her children. Thomas’s second wife has died, leaving him a single parent with four adult daughters and a newborn. In Jennie’s eyes, he is the same good-looking, kind, loving person she had fallen for when they were in college.
While Jennie has fallen in love with Thomas, he has no interest in romance. He is still mourning the loss of his second wife, he is caring for their infant daughter, and he still nurses the hurt he felt when Jennie abandoned him so many years before. He does not want her around his children, and he is determined to shelter his infant daughter from her.
As time passes, though, he finds himself attracted to Jennie again, discovering she now resembles the girl with whom he once fell in love, rather the shrew who once walked out of his life.
Tasha knows of Jennie’s earlier life and she has discovered that she still takes medication to control her behavior.
“Are these your crazy pills?” Tasha mocks her as she snatches the bottle from Jennie’s hand. “If I flush them, will you be crazy in the morning? Only a weakling depends on medicine,” she asserts.
She insists that whether Jennie takes the medication or not, she will ultimately relapse, that another manic episode lies ahead, perhaps just around the bend. She taunts Jennie by printing documents from the internet to support her claim. She reminds Jennie that if she were to relapse after marrying Thomas, she would ruin his life – a second time.
Shamed by Tasha, Jennie ponders tossing her medication, hoping to prove to both of them that she can live without it. As she considers what to do, she fears that she will fail the test, be unable to cope, and her demons– anger, alcohol, and sex − will come rushing back to thwart her chance for a second marriage just as they destroyed her first.
Thomas would not try to cope with those demons again, would he? She couldn’t ask that of him, could she?
In Once and Future Wife we follow Jennie as she goes a second round with her demons, hoping to find a way to stop them from destroying the love and happiness that finally seem to be within her reach.
Once and Future Wife is a stand alone sequel to Those Children Are Ours. The first book does not have a cliff hanger of any kind at the end. Once and Future Wife picks up with Jennie four years later and can be read apart from the other book.
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Our Book Review
I know I've said this before but David Burnett's stories read so well, they flow wonderfully, you feel so connected to the characters and become entranced by the storyline, they are a joy to read and extremely hard to put down. Don't worry if you haven't read Those Children Are Ours because the author relates the main parts to the reader so this can be read completely as a stand alone read.
We are reunited with my one of my favorite characters Thomas, he is such a lovely man, he and his children have gone through so much after being abandoned by Jennie, his first wife, years earlier due to suffering from bipolar, although she didn't realize this at that time and it went untreated. Thomas and his family eventually found happiness again in their lives with Emma but sadly she passes away leaving a new born baby, Thomas and the girls distraught and left to struggle through on their own.
Jennie is now fully on the road to recovery and has turned her life around, she now enjoys loving visits from her children and is enjoying life. On the news of Emma's death she is also left devastated as they had become friends, yet deep in her thoughts she can't help wondering if there is the slimmest possibility of getting to know Thomas all over again and anything else would be an unimaginable bonus. This is also hoped for by the children but unfortunately Tasha, one of Emma's children, is far from wanting this outcome and begins her evil plan on Jennie. She tries to persuade Jennie that it's just the medication that is keepng her in control and that she is bound to relapse one way or another and break Thomas's heart all over again. Jennie feels threatened and is forced into a corner, contemplating stopping her treatment, risking her mental health and going back to her alcholohic man eating ways just prove to herself and Tasha that she can manage very well without it.
Another thought provoking and emotional read from the author, I loved the close bond of the family and found myself smiling from things they had said or done a number of times throughout the book and of course I can't forget about the nosey neighbour ready to prey on Thomas! I did find myself again warming more to Jennie but still couldn't get past what she had put Thomas and the children through in the early years. The author has done a great job at highlighting the thought process of somebody suffering from mental illness along with the pain that it can cause the loved ones that surround them.
Our Rating
Also Available - Those Children Are Ours
Her attorney tells Jennie that, ordinarily, she could not imagine that some type of visitation would not be granted. But, she warns, the situation is hardly ordinary. True, Jennie suffered from a bipolar disorder when she began to drink heavily, abandoned her family, and moved in with another man. True, she has turned her life around: leaving her boyfriend, returning to school, entering therapy, taking medication, finding a job, and joining a church.
But she pressed no claim for her children when her husband divorced her, and she has made no attempt to contact them in any way since then. Her daughters, now sixteen and fourteen, live four hundred miles away. They have busy lives that do not include her, lives that will be totally disrupted by the visitation that she requests. Their father is engaged to be married to a woman who has taken the role of their mother for a decade. Alexis remembers nothing good about Jennie. Christa recalls nothing at all.
Conflict ensues as soon as Jennie’s petition is served: her former husband does not want to share his children with the woman who deserted him; her children have no interest in knowing the mother who abandoned them, and her father insists that she is being timid and ought to demand full custody, not simply visitation.
As court convenes, Jennie’s past is dredged up− the desertion, the men, her drinking, her mental health − and paraded before the judge. Her claim to be a different person, now, is attacked. The judge hesitates to grant Jennie’s request, but reluctantly agrees to order three trial visits.
If persuading the judge to let her see her children was difficult, convincing them to allow her to be a part of their lives seems to be almost impossible. What happens as she finally begins to connect with her daughters places them all in grave danger and threatens her life, itself.
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About the author
David Burnett lives in Columbia South Carolina, with his wife and their blue-eyed cat, Bonnie. The Reunion, his first novel, is set in nearby Charleston.David enjoys traveling, photography, baking bread, and the Carolina beaches. He has photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, a Native American powwow, and his grandson, Jack. David and his wife have traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During one trip to Scotland, they visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen. In The Reunion, Michael's journey through England and Scotland allows him to sketch many places they have visited.
David has graduate degrees in psychology and education and previously was Director of Research for the South Carolina Department of Education. He and his wife have two daughters.
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Sharon Martin
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This is one of the more thought provoking novels I have read. It really deals with a mental health problem in an honest but sensitive way. I would recommend this book and any of this author's books to anyone (including my Mom!!)
ReplyDeleteThis is a story that can be very real for a lot of people nowadays....The relationship problems as well as the mental health issues.
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