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Magic Hour

Magic Hour, March 2006
by Kristin Hannah

Ballantine
Featuring: Dr. Max Cerrasin; Dr. Julia Cates
400 pages
ISBN: 0345467523
Hardcover
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"Captivating, intriguing and soulful novel."

Fresh Fiction Review

Magic Hour
Kristin Hannah

Reviewed by Stacey Herman
Posted February 15, 2006

Contemporary Women's Fiction

Dr. Julia Cates has spent her entire life focused on her career as a child psychiatrist. Unfortunately, it all comes crashing down around her when a patient commits a horrible crime and Dr. Cates is blamed for not predicting the violence. With no clients or much of a personal life to speak of, Julia returns to her hometown of Rain Valley to help her sister, Ellie, who's the chief of police, solve the biggest case to ever to rock the small town.

Ellie and Julia have little in common other than their family ties. Growing up, Ellie was the vivacious, outgoing homecoming queen, and Julie was the awkward, geeky bookworm. These two ladies combine forces to help a scared, frightened little girl found hiding in a tree with a wolf pup. The little girl is unable to speak and acts more like an animal than a human. Ellie and Julia work together to sort out the mystery of the girl and try to protect her. Along the way, they do some of their own soul-searching that is long overdue.

This was the first Kristin Hannah novel I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed her easy-going writing style. She's able to capture complex emotions and subject matter while making it very easy for the reader to relate. She doesn't waste any time jumping right into the story. I was hooked immediately and was captivated until the very end. I highly recommend this book -- it's a soulful and intriguing read.

Learn more about Magic Hour

SUMMARY

Deep in the Pacific Northwest lies the Olympic National Forest - nearly one million acres of impenetrable darkness and impossible beauty. Even in this modern age, much of it remains undiscovered and uncharted. From the heart of this old forest, a six-year-old girl appears. Speechless and alone, she can give no clue as to her identity, no hint of her past...

Until recently, Dr. Julia Cates was one of the preeminent child psychiatrists in the country, but a scandal shattered her confidence, ruined her career, and made her a media target. When she gets a desperate call from her estranged sister, Ellie, a police chief in their small western Washington hometown, she jumps at the chance to escape.

In Rain Valley, nothing much ever happens-until a girl emerges from the deep woods and walks into town. She is a victim unlike any Julia has ever seen: a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation.

When word spreads of the "wild child" and the infamous doctor who is treating her, the media descend on Julia and once again her competence is challenged. State and federal authorities want to lock the girl away in an institution until an identification can be made.

But to Julia, who has come to doubt her own ability, nothing is more important than saving the girl she now calls Alice. To heal this child, Julia will have to understand that she cannot work alone and must look to others-the people in the town she left long ago, the sister she barely knows, and Dr. Max Cerrasin, a handsome, private man with secrets of his own. Then a shocking revelation forces Julia to risk everything to discover the truth about Alice. The ordeal that follows will test the limits of Julia's faith, forgiveness, and love, as she struggles to ascertain where Alice ultimately belongs.


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