At the Water's Edge

Sara Gruen

2015 • 348 pages

Ratings20

Average rating4

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year's Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis's father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son's inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie's horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father's favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster. When he finds it, he will restore his father's name and return to his father's good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie's social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.

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Mahala

First of all, I'm mad no one told me this story was based around the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, and I'm personally offended. If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with Nessie and I would have read this a long time ago. When my husband got down on one knee and proposed to me, I was talking about Nessie, in case you need proof of my obsession. ANYWAY, that's why I picked this up. I was strolling through the bookstore and got to the Sara Gruen section. I've not read any of her books but I've obviously heard of her. So I just decided to read the synopsis on the book jacket. You guys don't know how fast I bought this as soon as my eyes saw the words “Loch Ness monster.” I didn't even read the rest of the synopsis.

That said, it turns out our protagonist, a spoiled rich brat from the United States named Maddie, her husband, Ellis, and their always attached to them friend, Hank, set off to find Nessie and prove to Ellis's dad that he's of some sort of worth after he gets cut off from family money. Spoiler alert: he's not. They're all spoiled, rich, brats with zero personality. I almost didn't even want to read it because of how awful they were. This is also all happening during WWII, so that brings in another set of circumstances.

I'm glad I powered through my first impressions. I legit could not put this down, but at the same time, I read it slowly because I didn't want to leave their world. The character development is great. The secrets revealed throughout are just enough to keep you interested, even though they're nothing groundbreaking. The female friendships are thriving. And although it turned out the book wasn't actually about baby Nessie, she does have some cameos, which I was super into. And the romance involved was SO good. I'm SO picky about the romance bits of books because most of it is unrealistic or cheesy, but I was INTO IT, y'all. Give me this book all day every day. It doesn't have great reviews, and I'm really not sure why. I thought it was captivating and I'm giving it five stars because I can't think of a single reason not to. Which is a big deal. If you keep up with my reviews at all, you know I rarely give anything five stars, even if I really like it.

Would I recommend?
Do you like historical fiction? Yes, friend, yes.

June 11, 2020

Dominique

Beautiful story. Maddie is used to living the high life but when her husband Ellis and his friend Hank decides to go look for the Loch Ness, her world is horribly turned upside down.

She has to get used to another country in a small village, left alone on most days, she starts a friendship with the help and at the same time discovers that her life is not what it all seems. The Loch Ness is not the only monster in this story.

An enjoyable historical fiction.

March 9, 2016