Life is But a Dream Author:Cheryl Shireman Imagine going alone to a secluded lake cabin to redefine your life. In this stunning debut novel by writer Cheryl Shireman, the main character, Grace Adams, is a woman who faces an uncertain future. Despite the fact that she built her life around them, and without her ever noticing, her daughter and husband have created lives that no longer ... more »include her. The novel begins with Grace waking from a nightmare alone in a cabin on a secluded island in Michigan. Her beloved home, a beautiful grey Cape Cod with a white porch and gigantic hanging baskets of dark magenta petunias, has been repossessed. Her marriage has fallen apart after her husband lost both his job and his mother. Waking in the cabin, frightened and alone, Grace reviews her life and feels as if it no longer has meaning. She gets up, walks through the woods to the edge of the lake, and while standing on the pier and looking into the water, decides to kill herself. She cannot swim and has, literally, surrounded herself with the option of death. As the novel progresses, Grace tries to compose a suicide note to her soon to be ex-husband and determine the best method for taking her life, including some that are a bit comical and impractical. Like life, the process of suicide is more complicated than Grace had imagined. The reader is introduced to Grace?s family through a series of flashbacks. Laney, her independent daughter who is hiking in the rugged Colorado Rockies. Matt, her soon to be ex-husband who is struggling to rouse himself from a crippling depression. In addition, Grace?s life becomes more complicated as she builds relationships with some of the people who live on the lake, including the beautiful but mysterious Nick Brandt who shows up on her doorstep unexpectedly. As she contemplates her fate, Grace makes a startling discovery that changes not only the course of her life, but also forces her to take action in ways she could never have imagined. The novel is written for women and through a woman?s point of view. Like the main characters in the novels of Elizabeth Berg, Grace is easy to identify with and easy to understand; for at some point, we have all felt the emotions she is experiencing. Thought provoking, sometimes frightening, and often funny, Life Is But a Dream is the story of a woman redefining herself and taking control of her life as she struggles to understand her present circumstances. It is the story of the power of love, the devastating consequences of depression, and the strength of the human spirit.« less