The Runaway Wife audiobook

Favorite Quotes:Whose breathing did he hear... How amazing it was to be privy to a stranger's sleep, something that belonged solely to that person. Sleep was not a break from life's continual sweep. In it, you were still living life, seeing things you would never see come morning, and it could age you as quickly as daytime.Even when she wasn't moving, she vibrated like a flame dancing in the wind.One of her dull-gray eyes was open, the other shut. As you go to death, Jim thought, perhaps there is always one eye turning back toward life.My Review:Upon finishing The Runaway Wife, I was in a state of indecision on how I felt about the book. I had vacillated in my opinion of the story while reading, although overall I found it thoughtfully written, insightful, and observant. I also found it somewhat exasperating, and then there is also this unsettling yet elusive quality for which I just couldn't settle on an apt descriptor without an in-depth internal analysis of my personal reading preferences. I was fascinated by the interesting and unpredictable nature of the characters, yet I was ultimately disappointed with them... but then, if I am being realistic, people disappoint each other all the time in the real world. The setting and premise were well out of my wheelhouse as the bulk of the adventure was a fool's errand taking place on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, (by a novice mountain climber) and also involved the power and facade of a philandering French politician/presidential candidate. Although, politics tend to be slimy and filled with philandering beasts in any culture... it certainly does in the current American political landscape. After a glass, or two, of wine and considerable inner musing in a hot bubble bath with my favorite Mozart disc playing, I concluded that my main complaint would be the lack of closure to the tale, as the story ended with the characters still in flux after making major life changes. I didn't get my coveted HEA, or a sense of closure or completion.Lesson learned - I should not be so rigidly focused on the expectation of having all the loose ends tied up for me, or in achieving a positive end result, or in having a neat and tidy sense of closure; as even with fictional characters, their life can still go on in an unclear direction - and so should mine.

Hiking heals. Our main character is a 30-ish American man, recently dumped by both his fiancee and his job. Life hurts! He and a friend take a vacation hiking in the Alps, help our guy walk it off, leave the pain behind and get ready to begin the life struggle once again.Maybe such a hike can never be a "normal" experience, it is too intense, but for our story we take a distinct step towards weird when three women approach our hikers and ask our guys to find their mother and bring her out of the mountains. Really? Our main character has never hiked the Alps before but, in American can-do spirit, he agrees. And down the rabbit hole we go. We have entered the fairy tale; the Queen fleeing her ogre husband, living on a mountaintop aerie full of flowers, bee hives, owls and ancient Benedictine wine, thick and tasting of blood. The Queen is young, with a braid and a quiver of arrows on her back. She cooks fish stew and ratatouille and charms our American no end. She doesn't want to go back to the ogre, understandably, but she is sick (pneumonia, not mental). The ogre has a menacing helicopter out looking for her, and they run and skip and dodge that helicopter like mountain goats. Eventually the game is up, I won't tell you everything. But choices are made and the players resume their places on the board, for the most part, but maybe not all is lost.

With an evocative voice and imagery sure to help you cool down during this heat wave, Birkelund's second novel, The Runaway Wife, is more than a story of a man finding someone who wants to stay out of the spotlight. It's a story of a man finding out what desire truly means, and thus what he genuinely desires. This book flew by due to its fairly small page count. I could have read another 10 volumes, it was such a pleasant experience if I'd had the time I would have re-read the book immediately upon finishing. I think billing this as chick lit seems to throw people for a loop, as the genre is too often seen as one to dismiss. Whereas, books such as The Runaway Wife are some of the most enjoyable and some of my most recommended when asked by other what they should read when they are in a slump. Maybe we should just go ahead and call this literary fiction so that others might understand how beautifully written and how compelling it could be. Birkelund has created in me a deep desire to see what she's seen and go where she's been, so I'm off to figure out how to go on my own adventure. Not just a great summer read, but a great read period!

Such a good, cute read!

The Runaway Wife by Elizabeth Birkelund transported me to a world I've never visited, to an oasis high in the Swiss Alps where a woman can be her true self, unworried about what others think.The book begins with Jim, an overworked financial investor who hasn't had a vacation in 8 years taking a vacation with a friend. They hike in the Swiss Alps and at a remote hut, they meet threesisters who entice them to search for the women's lost mother. The mother was raised in the Alps, but she has never stayed gone so long. They fear for her safety with snow coming. She also happens to be the wife of a man running for the presidency in France. The press recently revealed that man had a mistress and a baby, so the wife disappeared. Every day, the man sent a helicopter into the Alps searching for his wife so he could bring her home. Jim decides to take up the challenge, and what he finds changes his life and his dreams.Here's an excerpt:"The melodic singing drew closer but was interrupted by a long, drawn-out cough. Jim had not noticed her coughing yesterday. He looked out the window. She was hanging laundry -- sheets, lingerie, a long white nightgown -- on a clothesline. Her slim body weaved in and out of the laundry so that he could never see more than a part of her at any time....He could not resist returning to the window for one more glimpse of Calliope's dance among the billowing sheets and clothing. She looked like a woman at sea amid the sails of a ship."And later, the beauty of the Alps is reiterated."He'd heard the term Alpenglow, but this was the first time he'd witnessed it. The enormous bowl of the sky was lit from below by the amber light of the setting sun. The few snowfields nestled inside crevices in distant peaks glowed a deep mauve."Doesn't that make you want to see it yourself? It does for me. The entire time that the characters were hiding in the Alps, I wanted to be there to experience it myself. Very beautifully written.As an author myself, I've been warned about the squishy middle of a book, the part that makes reader drop a novel and not pick it up again, but Birkelund does not have that problem. The middle of her book is enthralling. The beginning of the book could have been stronger to lure readers into that middle, but I promise that if you stick with it a few chapters, you'll be rewarded.

No, the setting isn't France, but it's so close that you can see France just over the border. To add to the book's France factor, most of the characters are French right down to their occasional poutinesses and their love for art and beauty and minor surreptitious affairs. Giving the book a quite high Frenchiness overall.SPOILER ALERTThe story is a bit of a stretch, but then again don't be looking for realistic fiction, folks. Three sisters, all of whom have lovely mythological names, (do you see where this little story is going?) meet up with a naive American, Jim, who spontaneously agrees to head off up the Alps in search of their missing mother, Calliope. Am I telling too much if I share that he finds her and she's French with a capital F, and just being around this amazingly alive woman revitalizes Jim and changes his life. Rescuing Calliope, who doesn't want to be rescued, from the Alps in a snowstorm is a wonderfully fun adventure.

This book was easy to read and a lot of fun, although the wife in runaway wife was a classic Mary Sue (beautiful, intelligent, talented, seductive, can do anything) and the way the author wrote about the women was a bit hypersexualized, but regardless, I still churned through this book and enjoyed it. There were some details that didn’t make sense but can ignore for the sake of the story. The relationship Jim has with the mother and her daughters was borderline creepy and couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a romantic relationship or not. The only other thing that was out of place was a strange telephone conversation the main character has with his parents that was odd and came out of nowhere, with no backstory to it to make it make sense.

I enjoyed this book, not because of the plot (which was a bit of a reality stretch), but because it was different from any book I can recall reading. I loved the descriptions of both the immense beauty and the unforgiving harshness of the Swiss mountains, which can ultimately have the power to transform a person's life. In this book, a young American man who is going through a life crisis finds new meaning while on an unexpected "mission" to find a missing person (albeit one who prefers to stay missing). Wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending and thought it could have been developed just a bit more. It is an easy and quick read.

I loved the setting and the poetic descriptions of the high Swiss Alps in late autumn and under snow. An interesting story about the reluctant wife of a prominent French politician. Quite a timely topic.

If you like Mary Stewart's romantic suspense from the 1960s and 1970s, you'll like this. I was constantly reminded of her in the description of the setting, and the interaction of the characters. A charming read. I will likely read it again.

It took me a bit to get into this book but once I did I really enjoyed it. I found it because I was told it was similar to Where'd You Go Bernadette, which made me disappointed at first because I loved that book so much and wanted this to be the same. Once I let go of that expectation, I was able to enjoy this book for what it is and found it quite lovely.

On vacation with a friend in the Swiss Alps, nice-guy and slightly sad-sack Jim Olsen is taking a break before starting a new job he is not thrilled about and trying to get over a broken engagement. (His fiancee delightfully told her parents it was over a month before she told Jim--so that the cake, the reception room at the Plaza, and other wedding preparations could be canceled.) At La Cabane des Audannes, an Alpine hutte (a stopping/sleeping place), they meet three French sisters--Thalia, Clio, and Helene. The sisters are searching for their mother (Calliope) who has vanished into the Alps when her politician husband's latest affair is publicly rubbed in her face. Jim is drawn to the women--especially the alluring Thalia, and because of his thrall and his 'nice-guy-ness,' decides to help them by looking for Calliope and bringing her back. The fact that he is an American, unfamiliar with the mountains and inexperienced in hiking, doesn't seem to phase him, or the sisters who have to get back to their lives and jobs. After getting lost and some missteps along the way, Jim finds Calliope, who has no wish to return and fights to stay hidden from the men in helicopters her husband sends after her. Calliope seems to know or sense a lot about Jim and her intuitiveness causes him to reflect on his own life, while he tries to convince her to return with him before the snows come and the mountains become even more dangerous. The Runaway Wife is a charming and unique book. Beyond Heidi as a child and The Sound of Music, I have not read or seen many books or movies with a Swiss Alps setting. The author captures their beauty, danger and mystery well--they are almost a character in the book. Jim is a loyal and likable character and I found myself rooting for him, as well as the free-spirited Calliope-trapped in a bad and loveless marriage. There is a lyrical, almost magical feel to Calliope and the mountains which captured Jim, as well as my imagination and I hated for the story to come to an end. And the end was probably my biggest disappointment with this book--I wanted more--more details and more of a 'big finish.' I know that life is seldom wrapped up in a bow, but it felt a bit unfinished to me, especially for some of the characters. Despite my lack of love for the ending, I definitely enjoyed my time with Jim in the Alps and would recommend this book if you like quirky novels about finding yourself, as well as finding yourself in a unique place and situation. A good summer read when you need to think cooling, snowy thoughts. ;-) You can see my review and a recipe inspired by my reading on my blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...Note: A review copy of "The Runaway Wife" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Poor Jim Olsen. His mission to get over his bad break-up with his fiancée and clear his head before beginning a new job on Wall Street is completely derailed once he meets the three sirens in the guise of the formidable Castallane sisters. He and his friend Ambrose are seduced by their charms, and Jim agrees to a quest to find their missing mother Calliope. Their father is a powerful French politician in the midst of a Presidential campaign, and he needs his wayward wife by his side which explains the constant whir of rescue helicopters in the area. Jim isn't a very experienced hiker, and it's the end of the season. When he leaves the comfort of the hutte and blindly searches for Calliope, he has no idea what trials face him in the treacherous Swiss Alps.I am in awe of Birkelund's ability to craft unique, well-drawn characters. I was so worried about Jim and his reckless decisions throughout the book. He becomes a lotus eater to Calliope 's Calypso: He is on a deadline to return to New York to start his new job, yet he becomes less and less concerned about making his flight the longer he's in Calliope's company. I must say that the duality of Calliope's character disappointed me in the end. I was really pulling for her as well as Jim. The ending is a wee bit ambiguous. I would like to know more, but overall I enjoyed Jim's adventure in the Alps which is chock-full of suspense, beautiful scenery and quirky characters. I received a copy of The Runaway Wife from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

HERE'S MY REVIEW/INTERVIEW FOR BOOK CLUB BABBLEMs. Birkelund’s style is fresh and insistent, bringing a lively sense of importance to her words and her story. Reading The Runaway Wife is akin to taking an invigorating walk through beautiful surroundings as you inhale the rich, fortifying air. Which is precisely what her protagonist Jim Olsen does after three French sisters, Clio, Thalia, and Hélène, persuade him to track down their mother Calliope in the Swiss Alps. Calliope’s escape from her controlling, cheating, politician husband, and Jim’s ambivalent relationship with the predictable path of his life makes their encounter a two-sided rescue mission.The novel is like a Matisse cutout–by leaving in only that which is essential, it is both stark and richly informative. The Runaway Wife is a unique tale, tenderly capturing the essence of despair and hope.To read more go to: http://bookclubbabble.com/interviews/...

I really enjoyed the setting and the magical, almost fairy tale quality to the writing. I really feel a need for a sequel where she has the wife find more practical means to support and free herself but loved it and could not put it down

This book was an unexpected little treasure. Interesting characters who didn't behave in the way I would have predicted. Excellent reading and thinking material while on vacation- asking the big questions of life- in a subtle, provocative way. Highly recommend this sweet story!

Great book! Makes you want to run away to the mountains!

Delightful! Get reconnected to the principles that matter in your life while on a scenic journey on foot through the breathtaking Swiss Alps.