Williams (The Unplowed Sky, 1994, etc.) serves up a nicely blended soufflÇ of sentiment, Populist politics, and romance: a sweetly evocative, if unrealistic, western novel set in Oklahoma Territory in 1900. For Ed Morland, station agent for magnate Adam Benedict's railroad, the frontier town of Bountiful is his last hope to regain sobriety and his daughter's respect. For Lesley Morland, Bountiful is an opportunity for a permanent home and friends she won't have to leave each time her father's drunken sprees lead to unemployment. As Benedict turns Bountiful into the hub of his railroad by providing cheap land and cheap credit to prospective settlers, the deserted town becomes a thriving community whose life revolves around the train depot and its vital telegraph. Then Ed is killed trying to prevent a robbery, and Lesley assumes his position as station agent and almost immediately adopts three orphans. When Lesley chooses wagon driver Jim Kelly over Benedict, her spurned suitor turns from benevolent dictator to robber baron, threatening to destroy Bountiful by rerouting the railroad, at the same time endangering Lesley's financial independence. Lesley and Jim then lead a plethora of minor characters in a cooperative effort to preserve their community, an effort that reflects the Populist beliefs of its inhabitants. Bountiful is saved, the villain reformed, and all ends happily—as well as typically for Williams, whose latest effort revives many of her stock characters: stalwart heroine and kindly but weak older man; villain and supportive hero. Lesley also embodies Williams's favorite theme: a woman alone taking responsibility for her own well-being and winning financial security for herself and one or more helpless individuals, usually children. A nostalgic if historically accurate evocation of yesteryear, with poignant scenes of hardship and struggle. The author's Manichean characterizations may be a little too pat, but her fans won't be disappointed.
Pub Date: Dec. 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13512-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hannah, after eight paperbacks, abandons her successful time-travelers for a hardcover life of kitchen-sink romance. Everyone must have got the Olympic Peninsula memo for this spring because, as of this reading, authors Hannah, Nora Roberts, and JoAnn Ross have all placed their newest romances in or near the Quinault rain forest. Here, 40ish Annie Colwater, returns to Washington State after her husband, high-powered Los Angeles lawyer Blake, tells her he’s found another (younger) woman and wants a divorce. Although a Stanford graduate, Annie has known only a life of perfect wifedom: matching Blake’s ties to his suits and cooking meals from Gourmet magazine. What is she to do with her shattered life? Well, she returns to dad’s house in the small town of Mystic, cuts off all her hair (for a different look), and goes to work as a nanny for lawman Nick Delacroix, whose wife has committed suicide, whose young daughter Izzy refuses to speak, and who himself has descended into despair and alcoholism. Annie spruces up Nick’s home on Mystic Lake and sends “Izzy-bear” back into speech mode. And, after Nick begins attending AA meetings, she and he become lovers. Still, when Annie learns that she’s pregnant not with Nick’s but with Blake’s child, she heads back to her empty life in the Malibu Colony. The baby arrives prematurely, and mean-spirited Blake doesn’t even stick around to support his wife. At this point, it’s perfectly clear to Annie—and the reader—that she’s justified in taking her newborn daughter and driving back north. Hannah’s characters indulge in so many stages of the weeps, from glassy eyes to flat-out sobs, that tear ducts are almost bound to stay dry. (First printing of 100,000; first serial to Good Housekeeping; Literary Guild/Doubleday book club selections)
Pub Date: March 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-609-60249-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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