A review by sandlynn
The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel
5.0
Kristin Harmel’s The Life Intended was published in 2015, but this is the first time I’ve ever read this author.
This book — like two others I’ve recently read — centers on a woman who suffers a tragic loss and that loss is later (or even beforehand) picked up upon by her subconscious, leading to predictive dreams. (This plot line must be my catnip, because I just ate up all three of the books with these similar premises.) In The Life Intended, Kate, a New Yorker, met and married the love of her life in her late twenties. Within about a year of her marriage, her husband Patrick is killed in a car accident, devastating Kate. (This is not a spoiler since the plot point is literally on the back cover.) In any event, in the following 12 years, Kate hasn’t focused much on love, but she has taken her deceased husband’s advice and returned to school to become a music therapist. As the reader enters Kate’s life, she is now 40 years old, a successful music therapist — working mostly with children — and has met a new love who, to the delight of her friends and family, she’s preparing to marry. Just as she’s planning her wedding to Dan, Kate begins to have very vivid, life-like dreams where she is still married to Patrick. Both Patrick and she are 12 years older and have a pre-teen daughter named Hannah who is hard of hearing.
Oddly enough, in her non-dream life, Kate had just discovered that she can no longer have children. When she tells this to Dan he is perfectly fine with it, not expecting or wanting to have children at all. However, Kate, now knowing she can’t possibly have children, especially at her age is devastated — feeling like something else has been taken from her. As Kate continues having these strange dreams of an alternate life with Patrick and Hannah, she begins to feel estranged from Dan. And, acting upon some of the “facts” of her dream life, Kate decides to learn sign language and begin working with children who are hard of hearing under the supervision of a counselor who works with deaf children in the foster system and who teaches sign language. As the story progresses, Kate is torn in three ways — although still living with Dan and planning a wedding, she’s becoming increasingly unhappy with that relationship. She’s finding herself wishing and hoping that she can actually live in her alternate dream world even though she knows that’s impossible, and, to make things even more complicated, she’s finding herself growing interested in Andrew, the counselor and sign-language teacher, as well as a troubled pre-teen girl who he has asked her to work with while she awaits a potential reunion with her drug addicted mother.
I can’t lie. I could tell early on where this story might be heading. There’s a nugget of information relayed early in the story that tips off the reader, but since there are a couple of plot lines that are tricky and hit a dead end for our character, I began to wonder if I was wrong. However, no! I was not. Part of me was a little disappointed that things ended up almost exactly as I thought they might, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the ride. There’s something about loss, and dreams, and second chances that is so appealing. A bit of the magical or inexplicable in life, leading to happiness. I also loved most of the characters — other than Dan who understandably is upset and angry over his fate. The reader is set up not to like him, but that’s obviously unfair to him. Kate does become single-minded about what she’s feeling and dreaming about that upsets almost everyone in her life, old and new. The other thing I liked about this story was it’s setting. I am sucker for stories set in New York City. There’s something about that world that pulsates with possibility. I gobbled this book up in two days. I would give it an A.
This book — like two others I’ve recently read — centers on a woman who suffers a tragic loss and that loss is later (or even beforehand) picked up upon by her subconscious, leading to predictive dreams. (This plot line must be my catnip, because I just ate up all three of the books with these similar premises.) In The Life Intended, Kate, a New Yorker, met and married the love of her life in her late twenties. Within about a year of her marriage, her husband Patrick is killed in a car accident, devastating Kate. (This is not a spoiler since the plot point is literally on the back cover.) In any event, in the following 12 years, Kate hasn’t focused much on love, but she has taken her deceased husband’s advice and returned to school to become a music therapist. As the reader enters Kate’s life, she is now 40 years old, a successful music therapist — working mostly with children — and has met a new love who, to the delight of her friends and family, she’s preparing to marry. Just as she’s planning her wedding to Dan, Kate begins to have very vivid, life-like dreams where she is still married to Patrick. Both Patrick and she are 12 years older and have a pre-teen daughter named Hannah who is hard of hearing.
Oddly enough, in her non-dream life, Kate had just discovered that she can no longer have children. When she tells this to Dan he is perfectly fine with it, not expecting or wanting to have children at all. However, Kate, now knowing she can’t possibly have children, especially at her age is devastated — feeling like something else has been taken from her. As Kate continues having these strange dreams of an alternate life with Patrick and Hannah, she begins to feel estranged from Dan. And, acting upon some of the “facts” of her dream life, Kate decides to learn sign language and begin working with children who are hard of hearing under the supervision of a counselor who works with deaf children in the foster system and who teaches sign language. As the story progresses, Kate is torn in three ways — although still living with Dan and planning a wedding, she’s becoming increasingly unhappy with that relationship. She’s finding herself wishing and hoping that she can actually live in her alternate dream world even though she knows that’s impossible, and, to make things even more complicated, she’s finding herself growing interested in Andrew, the counselor and sign-language teacher, as well as a troubled pre-teen girl who he has asked her to work with while she awaits a potential reunion with her drug addicted mother.
I can’t lie. I could tell early on where this story might be heading. There’s a nugget of information relayed early in the story that tips off the reader, but since there are a couple of plot lines that are tricky and hit a dead end for our character, I began to wonder if I was wrong. However, no! I was not. Part of me was a little disappointed that things ended up almost exactly as I thought they might, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the ride. There’s something about loss, and dreams, and second chances that is so appealing. A bit of the magical or inexplicable in life, leading to happiness. I also loved most of the characters — other than Dan who understandably is upset and angry over his fate. The reader is set up not to like him, but that’s obviously unfair to him. Kate does become single-minded about what she’s feeling and dreaming about that upsets almost everyone in her life, old and new. The other thing I liked about this story was it’s setting. I am sucker for stories set in New York City. There’s something about that world that pulsates with possibility. I gobbled this book up in two days. I would give it an A.