TASTE OF HONEY

The second in Goudge’s projected trilogy (after Stranger in Paradise, 2001), again set in Carson Springs, the fictional Californian paradise where storm clouds soon give way to sunshine.

Familiar characters gather as the recently divorced Geraldine decides to find the daughter she gave up more than 20 years ago. Gerry was a nun then, a novice at the same convent where she now works as a layperson, and her lover was a young priest, the handsome James Gallagher. To avoid a scandal, she left the convent, bore baby Claire, and gave her up for adoption. Gerry subsequently married and divorced, and now has two children, daughter Andie, 15, and Justin, 11. On Christmas Day, Gerry nervously calls Claire. She’s a lawyer who’s unhappy in her work, likes to bake, and loves her adoptive older parents Millie and Lou, though she often feels stifled by their concern. Though stunned by the call from her birth mother, she does agree to visit. When they meet, though Claire still blames Gerry for her abandonment, and though Andie is jealous of her new sister, Claire finds herself much taken with Carson Springs—enough so to give up the law and open a tearoom there. As Claire and Gerry gingerly try to establish a relationship, Gerry’s affair with noted conductor Aubrey Roellinger becomes more complicated and someone wants her fired from her job. And Claire has problems, too: her adoptive parents are upset by her move; her relationship with boyfriend Byron, a medical student, is increasingly strained; and she’s attracted to divorced Matt, who’s renovating her tearoom. Naturally, minor squalls—like the accident that sends heavily pregnant Sam into labor, or Andie’s worries that she’s pregnant—are soon, along with all other problems, agreeably resolved.

Mind candy with just the touch of tartness to make it a comfort read instead of saccharine overdose.