Review: Burying Water by K.A. Tucker

Burying Water
(Burying Water #1)
By: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria
Published: Oct. 7, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:

The top-selling, beloved indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths returns with a new romance about a young woman who loses her memory—and the man who knows that the only way to protect her is to stay away.

Left for dead in the fields of rural Oregon, a young woman defies all odds and survives—but she awakens with no idea who she is, or what happened to her. Refusing to answer to “Jane Doe” for another day, the woman renames herself “Water” for the tiny, hidden marking on her body—the only clue to her past. Taken in by old Ginny Fitzgerald, a crotchety but kind lady living on a nearby horse farm, Water slowly begins building a new life. But as she attempts to piece together the fleeting slivers of her memory, more questions emerge: Who is the next-door neighbor, quietly toiling under the hood of his Barracuda? Why won’t Ginny let him step foot on her property? And why does Water feel she recognizes him?

Twenty-four-year-old Jesse Welles doesn’t know how long it will be before Water gets her memory back. For her sake, Jesse hopes the answer is never. He knows that she’ll stay so much safer—and happier—that way. And that’s why, as hard as it is, he needs to keep his distance. Because getting too close could flood her with realities better left buried.

The trouble is, water always seems to find its way to the surface.

My thoughts…

Water wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who she is or why she’s there. All she knows is the little bit about her attack that the medical doctors have been able to piece together. After a handful of months recovering, she still doesn’t know who she is or anything about her life prior to waking up in the hospital. Burying Water is told in two POV’s, Water’s from after she woke up, and Jesse’s from the moment he met Water leading up to her attack.

Burying Water was a romance, mystery, and sort of suspense all wrapped up into one. You don’t find out what really happened to Water until the end. You don’t know if Jesse is the person who raped and beat her nearly to death or if there’s someone else out there that did it to her. You jump between the past and present and get snippets of events where Jesse and Water interacted with each other prior to her attack. However, because you are reading from Jesse’s POV, you don’t really get all of Water’s backstory. So, you are still kind of left in the dark as far as who she was as a person prior to her attack. I really liked that even though you know Water’s outcome, the story still manages to build with anticipation and suspense as Jesse’s POV progresses. Meanwhile, since you don’t know if Jesse was the attacker or not, you are left wondering if Water’s really out of the woods yet or if the attacker is lurking in the shadows waiting to finish the job.

I loved the characters in this story. At first I was not a huge fan of Jesse when we meet him. He just seemed very young, naive, and sort of a douche. However, as he told his story from the past from his first meeting with Water to the present time, you saw him grow. He finally started to open his eyes to what was going on around him and he started to take more responsibility with his life and grow up. Granted, he still managed to make some really poor and unfortunate choices that were the catalyst for Water’s current situation. Then there was of course Water. Even with everything she’d been through and her lack of memory, she was a fighter. She fought death, literally. No one expected her to live. She fought her way back into life. She moved in with a lady she’d met shortly after waking up in the hospital. She got a job. She made friends. She tried as hard as she could to get her memory back. The fact that she didn’t just roll over and give up was empowering. We also have Ginny, the lady with whom she moves in with. Ginny was a hoot. She was a take no prisoner kinda woman. If she didn’t like you, she didn’t beat around the bush, she told you. She didn’t trust anyone and given her past, I can say I blame her. She too was raped at a young age. Which is why she bonded with Water and took her under her roof to help her get back on her feet. She pushed Water, not to remember, but to move on and live. She had her quirks but that’s what made that woman so awesome.

I listened to the audiobook version of Burying Water and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It definitely kept my mind off of the tedious task of packing up and cleaning the house for my move. For someone who has never been able to get through or understand audiobooks, they are saving my sanity right now.

I have to admit that I’m a fan of the author’s. I love her Ten Tiny Breaths series and I really enjoyed books 3 & 4 from this series. I have to admit that I got a little excited when we see Ivy in this one since I read her book a while back. While she doesn’t play a big role in this story, just seeing her for that small section made me itch to read her book again. I can’t wait to get my hands on Boone’s story next. He’s Jesse’s friend and someone we saw a lot of in this book. Trust me, if you want a series that is surrounded in mystery, semi-shady characters, and romance… you’ve got to try this series. So far it hasn’t mattered whether I read the books in order or not. Each one is amazing all on it’s own.

Favorite quote…

“He said the truth is like that water: it doesn’t matter how hard you try to bury it; it’ll always find some way back to the surface. It’s resilient.”