Mary Kay McComas
Fiction
This book confused me. I wanted to like it, but I didn’t. No, scratch that, I did like it, but only parts of it. Very, very few parts. The rest I skimmed and wished they’d been better.
What Happened to Hannah begins with a man named Grady calling a woman named Hannah and letting her know her mother is dead and her niece needs her (Hannah's sister died a long time ago and mom's been raising her). Hannah reluctantly agrees to come home. Hannah and Grady have a history, of course, and Hannah has lots of deep, dark secrets that she is forced to deal with when she returns to her hometown.
I’m not a big fan of the woman-was-abused-when-she-was-younger-then-flees-but-now-must-return-home-to-face-her-demons plot. So I probably should not have picked up this book. But the quote from Nora Roberts on the front about how the author “weaves stories that brighten the heart” suckered me in. Now, I know abuse happens in real life, believe me I know, but I find it really hard to read about, even in fiction. It’s just too depressing for me. And I really did like Hannah, but having to read those scenes where she remembers her father hurting her were rough.
On the plus side, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the love story. I loved the flashbacks to Grady and Hannah’s first meeting and how he courted her, those scenes were sweet and romantic. The present day courting was not quite as good, however. And the final scene between the two was a bit of a letdown. I also found myself wanting to hear more from Lucy and Cal, Grady’s kids from his first marriage. They were very interesting but since the only POVs were Hannah and Grady, we didn’t get as much from them as I would have liked.
So I don’t really know what to say about this book. If you can stomach woman-overcoming-her-horrific-past stories, you’ll enjoy it. If you’re kind of a wimp like me, you might want to skip this one.
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