Review: Always on my Mind by Susan May Warren

Always On My Mind

Welcome back to Deep Haven and for another visit with the Christiansen family.  Always on my Mind focuses on middle son Casper and his volatile relationship with Raina, the love of his life.  After discovering that Raina and his younger brother Owen had a history, he fled to South America on an archaeological treasure hunt.  Realizing he missed his family, he heads back home only to discover a very pregnant Raina living with his sister Grace.  Casper, wanting to fix things with Raina is unable to express to her how he really feels.  He also struggles with letting go.  Raina is running from her own sorry circumstances and feels that she and Casper just will not work especially since she is having his brother’s baby.  This read packed an emotional punch but shared some really great truths.  Raina was self-destructive and making some poor life choices.  She would not see reason and trust those who cared about her.  That was hard to watch and sometimes I just wanted to shake her.  However, Casper who wanted to swoop in and be her hero began to rely on prayer.  When she would not see him, he prayed for her.  When she would not listen to him, he prayed for her.  I really liked how Ms. Warren showed in her writing that that was the best thing to do, especially when someone is so determined to not listen to good advice and thus they choose to go it alone.

Adding a thread of suspense, this story also involved an old mystery surrounding a legend of the town that Casper and Raina are trying to unravel.  Darek, the older Christiansen brother has a prominent role in the book as his story continues especially dealing with his struggles in running his family’s resort and being there for his pregnant wife, Ivy and his son Tiger.  By the end of this book Ms. Warren sets up the next story nicely which is about younger sister Amelia and I hope we see a glimpse of the other missing brother, Owen and his return as well.  I received this book from The Book Club Network, Inc. (TBCN) for an honest review and the opinions are my own.