Three are two words that immediately come to me as I think about this book: emotional poignancy. Yet even those words don't seem to do justice to the way you will feel as you read Christine Brae's lovely, heartbreaking, heart healing book.

Before she embarks on medical school, Anna heads to Thailand. She's also escaping the discovery of a family secret that nearly crushes her. Anna hopes both to escape and to help villagers still recovering from the tsunami. She encounters so much more.

Anna traveled with Dante, a man who has been her best friend for years. When Anna falls apart, Dante is always there to help her put herself back together. They love each other as best friends do. You get the sense that their relationship could progress into romance - you certainly get the sense that Dante believes this - but Anna likes (she needs) what they have now.

Especially when she meets Jude, a beautiful, spiritual man who takes her breath away. For a little over a week, they get to know each other, and their feelings deepen. Just as Anna receives some devastating news, she and Jude share one glorious night together.

Paradise isn't longterm, though, and Anna has to return to the States earlier than planned. She and Jude make promises to each other, but, five years later, Anna struggles to accept that Jude did not keep his.

She also discovers some secrets that Dante kept from her. Anna has to learn how to put herself back together without Dante or Jude. She has to find her own strength, and she has to understand how she can love two men in this one life.

This book has been commissioned for a film, and it reads like one. Brae writes in a way that lets you see what's happening almost as strongly as you feel it. Anna's adventures, both personal and professional, are visually compelling, enabling you to see the tranquil and the turbulent. Anna is a doctor, and, as such, she needs to see her patients to diagnose them. Brae applies this to the book as well. She wants you to really see Anna. You have to optically connect with her in order to emotionally empathize. The device works, especially considering the feelings Brae will unleash in you with this book. Have a box of tissues handy. Have two. For just when you think that Anna has it all sorted and that she will have her peace and contentment, Brae shows you just how capricious this life - any life - can be.

One particularly powerful thread running through the book is that of faith and commitment, whether corporal or spiritual. Sometimes the faith is in a friendship, sometimes it's in a parent, and sometimes it's in God. You have to commit to that faith, though. Faith cannot be equivocated, which is a lesson Anna, Dante, Jude, and other characters must discover.

For all of the vagaries life presents, though, one thing remains consistent: love, in all of its forms. Romantic love, filial love, paternal love, friendly love. Passionate love, the sort of love that you're lucky to ever feel. Grateful love. Comfortable love. And with all of these loves, your heart expands to keep adding them.

Can you love more than one person? Christine Brae believes they can, and you will, too. You'll believe anything she tells you because she does it with such lovely emotional poignancy.

This novel was beautiful, poetic and profound.

The twists and turns in the novel were abundant and I can't say that they were all surprises. The synopsis gave away the plot for the first half of the book and if you were half way observant, you could figure it out.

But the second half is were things really start getting interesting, so stay with it. You will go on such a ride of emotions you won't even know what you are feeling from one chapter to the next.

I can honestly say that for once I didn't find any common ground with our characters, I've never been in similar circumstances as any of these characters, you know what? It's nice to have escaped into this brand new world and these new experiences, even if they tore my heart apart several times.

I really enjoyed the roller coaster that this book had me on and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

In this life is a story full of twists and turns. It's a story that will leave you wondering where you are being led next and might even have you questioning if you like the direction things are going or not.

This story took me on a journey, one that I somewhat expected but one that also surprised me. I wasn't sure how to feel about the characters sometimes but was hooked on the story and had to continue. I love when books pull me into the story and make me feel, be it laughter or sadness, confusion or any other feeling. This book both sucked me in and had me feeling lots of things, more than that it kept me on edge trying to figure things out.

This was my first book by Christine Brae and her writing style workedwell for me, making me want to read more.

OMG, just WOW…. what an epic read!

In This Life is an emotional, gut-wrenching story of the lives of three people. Their lives intertwined in this beautifully written love story. You will undoubtedly fall in love with all three of them.

ITL is a journey of faith, fate, choices and love. You can feel the spirituality emanating from this book and how our faith in God is sometimes put to the test. That sometime maybe faith and fate do intersect.