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.
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"Β 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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