Book #45 was King’s Oak, by Anne Rivers Siddons. The back of the book reads:

He would make her whole again

Leaving behind a disastrous marriage, Andy Calhoun moves to the small town of Pemberton, Georgia, “in search of banality.” What she discovers, though, is not serenity, but Tom Dabney, a passionate and magical man.

An exuberant poet who worships the wilderness surrounding Pemberton, Tom is everything Andy doesn’t need in her life right now. But despite warnings from friends, Andy is soon deeply immersed in Tom’s life and his world…a world he will do anything to protect. When Tom declares war on the enemy poisoning his woods, it becomes clear that Andy must choose between her life with Tom and the one she left behind…if Pemberton society will take her back.

This book took me a while to get into. I had actually put it away with the intention of trying again later, then grabbed it again when I needed something convenient to read. Ms. Siddons tends to do a lot of set-up, and I felt like I had to plow through it before I got to the interesting meat of the story. However, when push comes to shove, I end up rather enjoying her books, even when I have to skim through several pages about worshiping the woods.

Book count: 45/50 — 90%
Pages in book: 608
Page count: 16,138

15,000 page goal reached 6/14/05!