Always in My Heart is a well written, affecting story about a marriage gone wrong after the death of a child. Even though I did enjoy it, unfortunately, this story of love redeemed also had a number of things that set off my hmmmmm radar.

The divorce is final and then some. The dust has settled. Ellie Grant is getting over her ex, Tucker. No, that’s wrong. She is over him; she’s gotten on with her life. Then one day she gets a call. While on a weekend visit with Tucker, Zach and Kody, her two boys, have decided to take their shredded family situation into their own hands. They’ve run off to Baxter Wilderness Area, and they’ve left a note saying they won’t return until Ellie and Tucker patch things up and get back together. Nothing less is acceptable. They are tired of being separated from their dad and having to put up with the results of their parents’ lingering grief and sadness.

Ellie is, of course, frantic with worry for the boys’ safety. The Wilderness area is a dangerous place for boys alone, even if those boys have been taught camping and survival skills by the best tracker in the area – Tucker. She dismisses her sons’ demands and takes her sort of boyfriend along to keep her company during the search and to keep her from killing Tucker, or, even worse, jumping his bones. She hasn’t seen Tucker in almost a year, and she doesn’t want to deal with either him or her lingering attraction to him.

As Ellie and Tucker begin their search, memories of their other son’s death rise up and haunt them. In the course of trying to decide what to do about their missing boys, they must confront their feelings of guilt and anger. They also realize that their feelings for each other aren’t completely dead. Is there any way they can get past what happened and be the family that Zach and Kody need?

This story is a variant of the Marriage in Trouble plot, one of my personal favorites because the author doesn’t have to take the time to develop the feelings between characters – they are already there. Anderson does a good job showing what decent people Ellie and Tucker are, and it is easy to see why they loved each other so much and had such a good marriage before the death of their son. They are both real and down to earth. Tucker in particular is simply yummy. He’s got almost as many outdoor skills and tricks as MacGyver. He’s very self-sufficient and yet protective and solicitous of Ellie. Camping with him would probably be a lot of fun under better circumstances.

The survivalist and tracking parts of this book were quite interesting, though Anderson occasionally waxed too eloquent about the beauty of the outdoors. Watching Ellie and Tucker battle the elements, their sons’ tricks and pranks and their own desires made for good reading.

Though this was a good story, the plot itself was a little unbelievable. Zach and Kody’s mechanizations were somewhat reminiscent of The Parent Trap. That they would be so prepared and could be so detail-oriented in their planning process was a little hard to swallow. Many eleven and fourteen-year-old boys can barely keep track of basic homework instructions. Manipulating a complicated situation like this would seem to be out of their league.

It was also a bit off-putting the way Ellie was so focused on and attracted to Tucker even when she first found out her children were in trouble. It wasn’t exactly like all she could think of was getting her hands all over him, but you’d think most mothers in that situation would be so overwhelmed with anxiety that any feelings of lust would be completely annihilated.

Finally, the resolution of Tucker and Ellie’s marital problems seemed a bit quick. The book takes place over the course of a few days. One would assume that miscommunications resulting in a divorce might be a bit more complicated to sort through. If they could work things through with such ease, why weren’t they able to pull it together before? Also, the book explored a lot of deep emotions. Most of the time, these emotions were adeptly written and seemed very natural. But sometimes Anderson concentrated so much on these emotions that they felt affected, and bordered on the sappy and manipulative.

I can recommend Always in My Heart for its good characterization and for its touching message about forgiving and moving on. This book was a good read; the story moved along nicely and held my interest. But I wasn’t quite convinced that the things that happened in this story would happen in real life, so my ultimate recommendation must be somewhat qualified.