Maggie (Awakening Book 2)

From Publishers Weekly Fans of Martin's Christy-nominated debut novel, The Dead Don't Dance (2004), will be delighted to see this somewhat uneven sequel in which Martin picks up the story of Dylan Styles, a farmer and junior college instructor. His long vigil at his comatose wife Maggie's bedside following the stillbirth of their son has ended with her awakening. Now, life in Digger, S.C., is beginning to return to normal-or so it seems. Together, Dylan and Maggie try to rebuild a life interrupted, grieve the loss of their son and ponder trying for another baby. But as the couple pick up the pieces of their relationship, tragedies-perhaps an overabundance of them-are just around the corner. "What makes the broken whole?" Dylan wonders. "How does deep-down pain, interwoven like sinew, come untangled?" Martin's plot twists, including one involving Pastor John's past that comes back to haunt him and the people he cares for, may seem like a distraction from the stronger theme of Maggie and Dylan's own struggles in taking their marriage forward. One of Martin's many strengths is in his rich portrayals of people, but he has a penchant for overusing similes, and his often beautiful writing sometimes needs to be tightened. The ending laudably offers hope and redemption without too-neat resolution. (Sept. 12) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The moving sequel to bestselling author Charles Martin’s The Dead Don’t Dance. After slipping into a four-months-long coma following the tragic loss of their son in childbirth, Dylan’s wife, Maggie, finally awakens-but can the young couple pick up the broken pieces of their lives and move forward?In a sleepy rural town in South Carolina, Dylan and Maggie Styles were a young couple in love, preparing eagerly for the birth of their first son. When the child was delivered stillborn and Maggie hemorrhaged and slipped into a coma, Dylan’s entire world shattered, but he never gave up hope that she would awaken. And four months later, she did.“When Maggie opened her eyes that New Year's Day some seventeen months ago, I felt like I could see again. The fog lifted off my soul, and for the first time since our son had died and she had gone to sleep-some four months, sixteen days, eighteen hours, and nineteen minutes earlier-I took a breath deep enough to fill both of my lungs.”Life begins again for Dylan when his beloved wife wakes, but so many things have changed. In this poignant love story that is redolent with Southern atmosphere, Dylan and Maggie must come to terms with their past before they can embrace their future.Full-length emotive Southern fictionThe sequel to New York Times bestselling authorCharles Martin’s debut novelPart of the Awakening series Book one: The Dead Don’t DanceBook two: MaggieAlso by Charles Martin: The Mountain Between Us, Chasing Fireflies, When Crickets Cry, and The Water Keeper