Time Is a River

Mia goes to a fishing weekend for cancer survivors and finds it so therapeutic that she rushed home early to share the experience with her husband. She finds him in bed with another woman. Instead of deteriorating into a sob story, the story becomes one of growth and recovery.

I thought that I had read all of Mary Alice Monroe's books but somehow I missed this one. I listened to it on a long drive and my involvement in this book made the miles fly by. Mia is a breast cancer survivor on the physical side of recovery but still dealing with it from a mental and emotional standpoint. Her sister sends her to a survivor retreat in the NC mountains called Casting for Recovery, where breast cancer survivors learn to fly fish and connect with nature and each other as a means of recovery. When Mia returns home, she finds her husband in bed with another woman and she flees back to the NC mountains. She rents a small cabin and decides to stay there for the summer to try to figure out her future life and gets involved in the mystery surrounding the original owner of the cabin. As with all of Mary Alice's books, her love of nature and the environment shines throughout this book. The river and the mountains are as much a part of the story as the characters. One additional note, Casting for Recovery is a real group that is involved with breast cancer survivors and I am very impressed with their work. This is a great book - not only do you get a wonderful story but you get to mentally spend time in the beautiful NC mountains.

Mia, the protagonist, has just gotten over cancer and participates in a women's' survival group of fly fishers. But this story is about finding the truth about a prominent woman fly fisher in the town, who was accused of murder at least 100 years earlier. It is a mystery Mia is obsessed with solving, and it is interwoven with Mia's own cancer recovery and her husband's betrayal, her fly fishing instructor, Belle Carson, and Mia's growing friendship and eventual new love, Stuart McDougal. Co-stars are Watkinsville and the folks who live there, the brookies and trout, and of course, the river. An excellent read.

I couldn’t leave this book and ignored to do list to read. Family ties run deep and the line…Genes do not determine love resounds deeply. Let’s go fly fishing. Mary Alice Monroe is the best.

This book was recommended for me as an interesting novel that deals with family history. When it arrived in the mail, I eagerly read the back cover. My first thought was that it was another "feel good" book, the kind that has sweetness and light shining on every page. Not that would be a bad thing, just not my usual cup of tea. It starts with Mia Landan, a breast cancer survivor, finding that her husband was unfaithful to her. Torn on many different levels, she runs back to the last place she felt some peace, a breast cancer survivor retreat. The owner of the retreat, Belle Carson , realizes that Mia needs to find herself, needs some time to sort out her life and become whole again. She offers Mia the use of a disused fishing cabin that she had inherited . Mia quickly finds that the cabin holds secrets that have caused family discord for decades....and she becomes obsessed with reuniting Belle and her long dead Grandmother, while carving out a new life of her own. I found myself totally absorbed in the book after the first chapter. It turned out to be so much more than a "feel good" book, including a great mystery, well written characters, and a very real sense of a family torn apart by innuendos and rumors. There were some aspects that I felt were overdone, including fly fishing, of all things. A few of the occurrences seemed contrived, and the ending was too predictable, in my opinion. Regardless I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others. Note: Some hints of sex, nothing bold....no bad language...no violence….good writing with well developed characters… No disclosure needed - I am a “reviewer” of Amazon products and often get things at a discount, however this item I have bought at FULL price for my own personal use. Thank you for reading my review!

I really enjoyed this book which was selected for my "Eclectic Book Club" I learned a few things about fly fishing. It takes an extreme amount of patience and lots of skill. Like a lot of things it seems to be still for men only. I really liked the mystery/story thread about Kate Watkins, a story within a story it really held my interest. The ending was a little less than I wanted...I hope that Mia returns to Stuart...there should be a follow up story...

I feel like I can see the cabin and surrounding area! The characters have become so “real”! I really enjoyed this book! Mary Alice Monroe is an accomplished author!

This wasn't a "can't put down" book, but a decent read. The reader feels a great deal of sympathy for the heroine, but her relationship with her new love interest lacked any real emotion. It wasn't a satisfying ending.