Where the River Ends by Charles Martin

Title- Where the River Ends

Author- Charles Martin

Publisher- Ebury Press

Format- Kindle Edition

Pages- 376

Rating- 2/5

Summary- When Chris Michaels asks Abbie Colman's father for her hand in marriage, he did not approve of it because Abbie was everything which Chris was not. While Chris grew up in a trailer park near the St. Mary's river and was a budding artist, Abbie was the daughter of South Carolina's most senior senator and a successful model. Being madly in love with each other, they marry secretly against her parents' wishes and start a new life. However, destiny had some other plan because after ten years of a happy marriage, Abbie is diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, living with cancer for four years, there is no hope left for them because it has reached its terminal stage and they have run out of options. So instead of keeping Abbie in a hospital room counting her final days, Chris takes her away in the middle of the night for a final trip on the St. Mary's river which is special to both of them and holds many memories. They take with them Abbie's wishlist where the wishes are quite 'normal' but for her they are special because since four years being 'normal' has been a luxury for her. While they are on a canoe desperate to reach the river's end and on the way fulfilling Abbie's different wishes, her father is hell-bent on bringing her home. Will they be able to strike off all the wishes on the list or her father will find them and bring them back?

Review- This is a romance novel which beautifully describes how true love makes a person do certain things which otherwise might seem impossible. The author has meticulously portrayed the trauma which a cancer patient and her close ones go through. The way he has described the path of the St. Mary's river is a proof that he himself knows the river well.

                Chris Michaels is the narrator and protagonist of this story. When a child, his mother had taught him to find solace in painting and that was how he was introduced to the world of art. However, it was Abbie who made him recognize his inner talent. Abbie wanted someone to love her soul and not her pretty face, Chris was the one who fulfilled that criteria. The way he supported her in her journey with cancer when she lost all her outer beauty is proof of that. Having grown up near the St. Mary's river, it has been very close to him so he took her to the river after marriage and that was how they shared some very good memories with it and so one of her wishes was to travel to its end. The way Abbie endured the pain of cancer with a happy face proved her to be a fighter.

                The continuous description of the path of the river throughout the book was quite monotonous and due to it I often lost interest in the story. Though everything in the book revolved around Abbie, she seemed quite detached. It would have been better if the author had thought about giving her a voice. May be romance genre is not my cup of tea and that is why this book did not strike a chord with me.

Readers who are interested in romance can check this out as it definitely shows you that love is boundless.