You Were on My Mind (Superromance , No 802)

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I loved the characters in this book. It was impossible for me to turn off the light and go to sleep without finishing it.

Rating:
Summary: Characters and plot have potential, but it isn't met.
Review: This novel is about Ivy, a midwife from the boondocks of West Virginia who turns up in Colorado with complete amnesia and no ID. She is "adopted" (as an adult) by a midwife named Francesca, who already has a daughter who is a young midwife. This book is the story of Ivy's discovery of her lost identity and reunion with her husband, Cullen, in West Virginia and their 12-year-old daughter, Gabriela. Gabriela starts out committed to becoming a ballerina, but by the end of the book she is considering becoming a midwife someday.

The type of amnesia Ivy (whose original name was Gina) has is defined as utterly, irreversibly permanent. Although Ivy does discover some things about her past, not all of her (and our) questions are answered by the end of the book. Ivy's in-laws are a pack of semi-dysfunctional adults, enmeshed in a variety of relationships to each other. Much of the book deals with their problems and Ivy's attempts to help them make sense of their lives.

While I found Ivy vaguely believeable as a character, there were some parts of the book that were too "coincidental" for me--like the fact that Cullen happens to be conveniently available when he and Ivy fall in love again, or the way Ivy's whole personality is more dynamic since her amnesia. (Before her accident, apparently she was very insecure and unloving/ungiving.) But my biggest complaint about the book is the way it tolerates and excuses violence, especially against women. Rape and abuse are not uncommon experiences for several of the women in the book, and I was particularly revolted when Cullen rapes Ivy because he's mad that, a dozen years ago as Gina, she might have been unfaithful to him. And Ivy doesn't even protest, even though she knows self-defense! Yuk.

I found Ivy and the other characters generally believeable and likeable, but certain moments in the book stretched my credibility and made me say, "Oh come on, give me a break!" Also, the central mystery of Ivy/Gina's past is never completely resolved, which made the ending unsatisfying.