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| Categories | Genre Fiction |
| Author | Kristin Hannah |
| Publisher | Random House Publishing Group; Reprint edition (April 27, 2004) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 448 pages |
| Item Weight | 2.31 pounds |
| Dimensions |
5.1 x 0.93 x 8 inches |
I. Book introduction
On Mystic Lake is a novel written by Kristin Hannah and published in 1999. Set in the serene and picturesque town of Avalon, Washington, the book delves into themes of self-discovery, love, forgiveness, and the power of healing.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A poignant and tender story of love, loss, passion, and the fragile threads that bind families together from the author of The Nightingale.
Annie Colwater’s only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he’s in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was—the woman she is now desperate to become again.
In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make….
Editorial Reviews
- “A beautifully simple, deeply compassionate story.”—Diana Gabaldon
- “Marvelous . . . a touching love story . . . You know a book is a winner when you devour it in one evening and hope there’s a sequel. . . . This page-turner has enough twists and turns to keep the reader up until the wee hours of the morning.”—USA Today
- “Superb . . . I’ll heartily recommend On Mystic Lake to any woman . . . who demands that a story leave her in a satisfied glow.”—The Washington Post Book World
- “A luminescent story . . . Kristin Hannah touches the deepest, most tender corners of our hearts.”—Tami Hoag
- “Excellent . . . On Mystic Lake is an emotional experience you won’t soon forget.”—Rocky Mountain News
- “Propels readers forward to the final chapter.”—The Seattle Times
About Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah (born September 25, 1960) is an American writer. Her most notable works include Winter Garden, The Nightingale, Firefly Lane, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds. In 2024, St. Martin’s Publishing Group published her novel, The Women, which is set in America in the 1960s.
Kristin Hannah was born in California. After graduating with a degree in communication from the University of Washington, Hannah worked at an advertising agency in Seattle. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound law school and practiced law in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer. Hannah wrote her first novel with her mother, who was dying of cancer at the time, but the book was never published.
Hannah’s best-selling work, The Nightingale, has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and has been published in 45 languages.
Hannah lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her husband and their son.
II. Reviewer: On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
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1. TOM LEWIS reviews for On Mystic Lake
Kristin Hannah spoils me with her amazing writing. I’m sure I’ll have to turn in my “man card” for saying this, but she melted me with this story about Annie, a woman who gets a second chance at life after having twenty years of marriage and her life uprooted by her cheating asshole husband. While it’s not “The Nightingale” or “The Great Alone,” it’s still an easy 5 stars, and better than 99.9999999% of the books you’ll read.
2. TAURY reviews for On Mystic Lake
On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah is a book about love, forgiveness and moving on. 4 adults from dysfunction. Toxic relationships don’t make lifelong partners. They just produce more dysfunction later in life. Sometimes what is toxic for one does not mean for others. New life blossoms and a second chance for love.
Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors. This book was more generic and characters developed loosely.
3. GRETA SAMUELSON reviews for On Mystic Lake
Annie is 39 years old and about to launch her daughter off to the UK before she starts her freshman year in college. As her and her husband of 20 years pull into the driveway after bringing their only child to the airport he tells her he wants a divorce- he is in love with someone else.
Annie is devastated and shell-shocked.
And now the story begins. She goes back to her childhood home to spend some time with her dad and begins to grow up and find herself for the first time in her life.
This is an older book of Kristin Hannah’s but her ability to reach into your chest and give your heart a squeeze is still strong in this story.
I would have loved a couple of POV chapters with her daughter, Natalie. I don’t think the story was lacking without it but I felt like she was a strong and confident young woman and I think developing her character just a bit more may have added some sprinkles to the cake.
With or without that extra bit- I did enjoy reading this one very much.
P.S. it was fun for me to read about Annie visiting Sol Duc Hot springs and Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula – such a beautiful area and I was reminiscing about a family vacation we had there a couple years back.
4. MALLORY reviews for On Mystic Lake
This was a lovely book about family, love, and identity. This story was emotional and sweet. At first I didn’t really like any of the characters but then you meet Izzy and then Annie becomes someone so likable. Annie and Blake have been married for 20 years and the day they send their 17 year old daughter to London, Blake blurts that he has fallen in love with a younger woman and he wants a divorce. Annie was heartbroken and begged him to wait and have them be separated for a few months. So much can happen in the span of a few months and when Annie goes to her hometown she finds more than she expected.
5. JJSPINA reviews for On Mystic Lake
An emotional and heartfelt read!
I didn’t remember I had previously read this book in 2014. It had a different cover. Here is my review from 10/6/24.
On Mystic Lake was an emotional and heartfelt read with characters that were flawed and real. The main character, Annie Bourne Colwater, is living in a one-sided marriage. Her selfish and self-absorbed husband doesn’t know how to love her or their daughter. He thinks only of himself.
Annie realizes that she has wasted twenty years with Blake when he announces one day that he is in love with another and wants a divorce. Annie is forced to reevaluate her life and take a break away from him with a visit to her father and her hometown. She hears that her former best friend is in need and she rushes to help him with his young daughter. What she finds is not only a sweet child who is suffering from the loss of her mother but a man in dire need of help when he drowns his sorrow in drink.
I felt my heart breaking for Annie who wants only to be loved and for the little girl, Izzy, who needs her father to love her again. It was tough watching these characters and what they had to go through to find love and peace in their lives.
I didn’t want this story to end and wanted to know more about these memorable characters and what they would do next. I think this should have another book to continue the story. I highly recommend this book from this talented author.
6. DMECHLINSKI reviews for On Mystic Lake
The Complexities of Life But Love Always Wins!
First of all, I absolutely love the writings of this author and have read many of her books. “On Mystic Lake” continues with the deeply emotional story of Annie for whom life has tossed some very intense and emotional life experiences which culminate in her learning that although she’s been living in the shadow of her husband, ignoring her own needs in order to fulfill his every need, he still leaves her, seeking the love from another. It takes Annie many years and many up and down life experiences to finally realize that her life will never be her own unless she allows her heart to truly lead her toward who she really is – a woman who becomes in love with the simplicities of life which also lead her to the true love of her life, a man and his child living a complex life until Annie happens upon them. Together this threesome unite their difficult life experiences and become a family, proving to themselves and everyone else that perseverance and following your heart takes you directly upon the road toward those with whom you are meant to be.
Perseverance, belief in oneself and following your heart would, in my opinion, describe best the message the author is making in this book. Allowing yourself to listen and follow your heart will always lead to what you are meant to do. This book follows the very emotional lives of not only the main charecter, Annie, but also of those around her. It takes the reader through the charecters’ experiences of love, loss, grief, alcoholism, healing and openly sharing. Sometimes it takes years to become the person you are truly meant to be, but as Annie experiences, listening to your heart without inhibitions will get you there. This is a book which gives hope, no matter what life tosses our way.
7. NANCY reviews for On Mystic Lake
A Knack for a Woman’s Perspective
Let me preface my comments by stating I am a huge Kristin Hannah fan but prefer her historical novels (looking forward to reading The Women soon). I recently read that a reader felt that Hannah’s novels are predictable. This is an unfair comment as positive endings are sorely needed in today’s world. In all her works, Hannah does an amazing job of writing from a woman’s perspective and following the challenges and difficult choices her female characters face. I eagerly am looking forward to reading all of her novels
8. TANIA BAUSADA reviews for On Mystic Lake
Sweet and very well written
Kristin Hannah is a wonderful storyteller and writer. Most of her novels are bestsellers. Although the coincidenses of plot twists are sometimes too contrived, the way she describes the conflicts of the characters is masterful. She portrays them as imperfect and human. They are multidimensional and believable. The relationship between Annie and Izzy is especially moving. It is a page turner.
9. KATIE B reviews for On Mystic Lake
After sending off her daughter to live overseas, Annie Colwater is devastated when her husband confesses he has been having an affair and wants a divorce. Annie decides a change of scenery might lift her spirits so she heads to her childhood home of Mystic, Washington. She soon finds out that her first love, Nick, has recently lost his wife and both Nick and his young daughter, Izzie, are having a hard time coping with the death. As the three of them spend more and more time together, each one make significant steps in the healing process. But soon Annie will be faced with some important decisions.
While this book definitely has some romance, I think the strength of the book is showing the different ways people cope with grief. Izzie is the real star of the story in my opinion and you can’t help but fall in love with the little girl who is having a hard time adjusting to the loss of her mother.
If you are looking for a good female empowerment book, I wouldn’t recommend this one. Annie is a bit of a weak character and at times you might become frustrated with some of the choices she makes. Despite some of my problems with Annie, I still enjoyed the book and thought it made a good weekend read.
10. SHAWNA reviews for On Mystic Lake
5 stars – Women’s Fiction/Contemporary Romance
This is a beautiful, emotional story about finding yourself again and the healing power of love in all its forms with a tender, touching romance at the heart of it. The book needed better editing because there wasn’t any spacing/separation breaks for paragraphs that started new content or change in time/scene/location. I also wanted more from the ending. I would’ve loved a couple more chapters and/or an epilogue showing Annie, Nick, Izzy, and baby Katie’s life together in Mystic and with them spending time with Natalie and Hank all as a family. Still, I was deeply moved by this heartrending and heartwarming story. 5 stars!
III. On Mystic Lake Quotes by Kristin Hannah
The best book quotes from On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
“Annie had made so many mistakes, and most of them had been because she’d planted herself firmly in the middle of the road. But now she knew that life without risk was impossible, and if by chance you stumbled across a safe, serene existence, it was because you’d never really reached for anything in the first place.”
“People left, and if you loved too deeply, too fiercely, their swift and sudden absence could chill you to the soul.”
“She’d asked too little of herself … and gotten exactly what she’d sought. It was funny how that worked in life.”
“I didn’t know how…deep love ran, how it was in your blood, not your heart, and how that same blood pumped through your veins your whole life.”
“No mother. Two small words, and yet within them lay a bottomless well of pain and loss, a ceaseless mourning for touches that were never received and words of wisdom that were never spoken. No single word was big enough to adequately describe the loss of your mother.”
“She used to tell me that she couldn’t feel the sunlight anymore, not even when she was standing in it, not even when it was hot on her cheeks”
“….both had learned that everything could change in an instant, and that the heartfelt vows of people in love were fragile words that, once shattered, could cut so deeply you’d bleed forever.”
“If she wasn’t careful, she’d slide without a ripple into the gently flowing stream of her old life, pulled back under the current without a wimper of protest. Another housewife lost in the flow.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being scared…It happens to all of us. What’s wrong is if we don’t try things because we’re afraid. We can’t hide away from the things that scare us.”
“Nothing was easier to shatter than the fragile shield of an idealist.”
“Sometimes you have to do everything right and follow the rules. You have to wait until all your ducks are in a row before you make a move. And other times… like now… you have to say ‘what the hell’ and go for it.”
“For years, she’d mistaken habit and affection for true love. She had assumed that the love she gave her husband was a reflection of the love he felt for her, and now, because of her blindness, she was alone.”
“Stop thinking about what you’ve lost, and think about what you have left.”
“She wanted to be with him, and though the realization frightened her, it also set her heart racing with anticipation. When she was with Nick, she was a different woman. Some of his glitter fell onto her and made her feel beautiful and sparkly and more alive.”
“A dad… he teaches responsibility and accountability, but a mom… ah, a mom teaches her child to dream, to reach for the stars and to believe in fairy tales.”
“Once, she had taken love for granted. Never again. Love was the sun and the moon and the stars in a world that was otherwise cold and dark.”
“You’re stronger than you think you are. You can get through this, whatever happens, you can get through it. Just don’t forget…the rain. It’s an angel’s tears. And every glass you’ve ever seen is half full. Don’t let yourself forget that. I know what it does to a person… forgetting that hope is out there.”
“I love you. And if I have to let you go to make you happy, I’ll do it.”
“Dreams. They were such precious commodities, and she’d given so many of hers away without a fight. Never again.”
“They had been friends in the way that only girls could be – they wore each other’s clothes and slept at each other’s houses and told each other every little secret. They promised to always stay friends.”
“When you get older, you’ll understand. There’s a certain comfort in the familiar.”
“he would learn that some roads could not be refound and that true love took time and effort … that a life lived in the glare of summer sunlight never produced a rainbow.”
“Love was the sun and the moon and the stars in a world that was otherwise cold and dark.”
“Unless he reached out now, in the days that mattered, he would learn that some roads could not be refound and that true love took time and effort … that a life lived in the glare of summer sunlight never produced a rainbow.”
“… reminded her how precious time was, how fleeting. How sometimes life snipped the edges off your good intentions and left you with no second chance to say what really mattered.”
“No single word was big enough to adequately describe the loss of your mother.”
“Another promise made by a man who’d kept too few.”
“I love you…It feels like I’ve loved you forever. I never knew it could be this way…that love could catch you when you fell.”
“Surely this beautiful creature couldn’t be the child who’d once licked the metal ski-chair pole at Mammoth Mountain … or the girl who’d climbed into her parents’ bed after a nightmare when she was only a year away from being a teenager. Seventeen years had passed in the blink of an eye. It was too fast. Not long enough …”
“There are only two people in the world who don’t respect you … as far as I know, anyway.” She looked at Natalie, shaking her head slightly, as if she could stop her daughter’s words. “Just two,” Natalie said. A single tear streaked down her cheek and she impatiently brushed it away. “Dad … and you.”
Excerpted from On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
Rain fell like tiny silver teardrops from the tired sky. Somewhere behind a bank of clouds lay the sun, too weak to cast a shadow on the ground below.
It was March, the doldrums of the year, still and quiet and gray, but the wind had already begun to warm, bringing with it the promise of spring. Trees that only last week had been naked and brittle seemed to have grown six inches over the span of a single, moonless night, and sometimes, if the sunlight hit a limb just so, you could see the red bud of new life stirring at the tips of the crackly brown bark. Any day, the hills behind Malibu would blossom, and for a few short weeks this would be the prettiest place on Earth.
Like the plants and animals, the children of Southern California sensed the coming of the sun. They had begun to dream of ice cream and Popsicles and last year’s cutoffs. Even determined city dwellers, who lived in glass and concrete high-rises in places with pretentious names like Century City, found themselves veering into the nursery aisles of their local supermarkets. Small, potted geraniums began appearing in the metal shopping carts, alongside the sun-dried tomatoes and the bottles of Evian water.
For nineteen years, Annie Colwater had awaited spring with the breathless anticipation of a young girl at her first dance. She ordered bulbs from distant lands and shopped for hand-painted ceramic pots to hold her favorite annuals.
But now, all she felt was dread, and a vague, formless panic. After today, nothing in her well-ordered life would remain the same, and she was not a woman who liked the sharp, jagged edges of change. She preferred things to run smoothly, down the middle of the road. That was where she felt safest–in the center of the ordinary, with her family gathered close around her.
Wife.
Mother.
These were the roles that defined her, that gave her life meaning. It was what she’d always been, and now, as she warily approached her fortieth birthday, it was all she could remember ever wanting to be. She had gotten married right after college and been pregnant within that same year. Her husband and daughter were her anchors; without Blake and Natalie, she had often thought that she might float out to sea, a ship without captain or destination.
….
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