Contrivance and a multitude of sitcom mixups drive Ahern's fifth novel. When Joyce Conway gets a blood transfusion after a tragic accident that caused her to miscarry, she strangely picks up the memories of her donor. Upon release from the hospital, she moves in with her father to try to cope with her impending divorce and the loss of her baby, but ends up instead on a wild goose chase after feeling a connection with a mysterious, smoldering stranger in a hair salon. Their relationship is obvious to the reader immediately, which makes the following several hundred pages a less than satisfying exercise in delaying the inevitable. Fans of Ahern's earlier work won't be disappointed with the fairy tale–like feeling, but readers not already in the fold might not stick around to the obvious conclusion.
With her marriage already in pieces, Joyce Conway nearly lost everything else. But she survived the terrible accident that left her hospitalized--and now, inexplicably, she can remember faces she has never seen, cobblestone Parisian streets she’s never visited A sudden, overwhelming sense of deja vu has Joyce feeling as if her life is not her own.
Justin Hitchcock’s decision to donate blood was the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. He chased his ex-wife and daughter from Chicago to London--and now, restless and lonely, he lectures to restless and bored college students in Dublin. But everything is about to change with the arrival of a basket of muffins with a "thank you" note enclosed--the first in a series of anonymous presents that will launch Justin into the heart of a mystery.., and forever alter two lives.