The Mom Stays in the Picture On Mystic Lake; Kristin Hannah (1999)

On strength of The Women, I picked up a few Kristin Hannah books at a Fletcher Free Library book sale, and decided to start with the oldest of the three, On Mystic Lake, which in turn, according to the "Other books by" page, her eighth book.  The dust jacket proclaimed, "Kristin Hannah makes her hardcover debut" which initially surprised me -- I hadn't realized Hannah started as a softcover romance novelist and was now a little worried about my purchases. 😅

As it turns out, while On Mystic Lake has many of the earmarks of a standard romance novel, the kernel of the author who would write The Women is present, and it's an enjoyable read with (mostly) well-rounded characters and tackles thorny relationship complications.  

And wonderfully, on page 29, I was reminded of "The Mom Stays in the Picture": 

"There were almost no pictures of her.  Like most mothers, she was always behind the camera, and when she thought she looked tired, or fat, or thin, or ugly ... she ripped the photo in half and ditched it." 

... and then again later in the book:

"We're like that, we moms.  We take the pictures, but we don't record our own lives very well.  It's a mistake we never realize until it's too late..."