The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

My love affair with Liane Moriarty began when one of my girlfriends recommended The Husband's Secret.  Shortly after that I read Big Little Lies (my Liane Moriarty fav!) and was determined to read all of her books.  I'll never forget reading the synopsis of this one.  I saw the word hypnotist and assumed it to be some earth hippie type story......to all my earthy hippie friends, I love you and respect you, but as we all know......that's just not me.  Back to my point.  I only started reading it because my tasking oriented mind kicked in and therefore had to finish the last of her books.  I have to admit, I am quite glad I did.

Ellen is an independent woman with her own business.  What does she do?  She helps people overcome barriers through the power of their minds.  Yes, she is a hypnotist and a successful one at that.  Her clients come to her to lose weight, stop smoking, overcome chronic pain, and just about every other obstacle they come across.  Career wise, she has her life all figured out.  In the love department, however, she is still trying to find Mr. Right.  This luckily turned around for her when she met Patrick.  Patrick is kind, attractive, funny, and adores her.  He is also a widow with a teenage son whom he takes excellent care of.  It appears Ellen has finally met her person.  That is, until he admits he has a stalker.  This isn't a random stalker, but his ex-girlfriend who refuses to accept that it's over.

Saskia still doesn't understand what went wrong.  She was the perfect girlfriend and second mother to Patrick's son.  Why did it have to end?  He was her whole world.  She loved and still loves his son and Patrick, so why did this all have to be taken away?  She knows she needs to move on, but she can't.  She needs to be a part of their world no matter what and in any capacity.  She hates how upset this makes Patrick when he sees her.  He did love her once.  Now all she sees is rage in his eyes.  What's even worse is that now he's found someone else.  That's okay though, she'll find out more about the hypnotist.  After all, she has a pain in her leg she needs help overcoming and a hypnotist just may do the trick.

The beginning starts a tad slow when building a foundation for Ellen's life, but after the first few chapters, I was hooked.  Saskia's stalking is so annoying in the beginning and you want to smack Patrick for not getting a retraining order, but then you get to know her and feel what she went through.  Losing Patrick and his son was like a death in her life.  We get to mourn the loss of our loved ones, but what about when it feels like our loved ones died simply because they were taken away from us without warning?  Even Ellen becomes intrigued by Saskia both out of concern and also pleasure.  Is she really that interesting to be the victim of stalking?

I would definitely consider this the perfect summer read.  It is definitely not as intense as Big Little Lies, but provides just enough intrigue to keep you reading.