Thanks For The Memories-Cecelia Ahern

Thanks For The Memories
Cecelia Ahern
Harper, Apr 2009, $24.99
ISBN: 9780061706233

Joyce Conway lies at the bottom of the stairs after falling. When she next awakens she is at a hospital, having miscarried. Her father is there, but her husband Conor remains away on business. She lost so much blood, she received a blood transfusion. After her release from the hospital, she goes to live with her dad as she and Conor are divorcing. Joyce begins having odd visions, speaks Latin, and knows trivia tidbits re European architectural design and Irish history. None of these oddities were known before her tragic accident.

American Justin Hitchcock is a visiting professor at Dublin's Trinity College, where he lectures on European art and architecture. He gave a pint of blood at a nearby hospital and mused afterward that some anonymous person owes him. He is mystified by his constant running into a female he never met and his attraction to this stranger, who muses over how she keeps meeting a male stranger she finds so appealing.

This whimsical contemporary romance is a fun tale, but ironically the prime relationships are not between the lead couple; instead the top guns are Joyce with her father and Conor with his family. The cast is strong with the secondary players providing insight into what motivates the lead couple; Joyce feels the pain of her miscarriage and not much re her divorce while Conor seeks to do something meaningful. The blood destiny never comes off the ground as much as the other interactions, yet fans will relish this engaging tale of fate mindful of Cusak-Beckinsale in Serendipity.

Harriet Klausner