AAR

[xina]

]

Xina, I hope you'll enjoy Bewitched! I do love the cover they've given me for that book: I've always wished for a cover with a painting from the 19th century (three or four years ago Pre-Raphaelite paintings used to be all the rage for books covers in Germany) and - voilà - there it is: the background is a painting by Grimshaw turned bluish. :)

Best,
Sandy[/quote]


The cover is lovely Sandra. That is sort of why I bought it. I was trying to wile away some time in the bookstore...I was early for an appointment. So, I saw it, recognized your name and thought the premise sounded kind of fun. I'm planning on reading it soon. It is 3 or 4 books away from being read. Ah well...too much to read, too little time. xina

[MarianneM]

Seems to me, that contemporary authors sometimes evade describing real-life crises and problems because they're afraid of stepping on toes. One author who bravely goes into the fray is Nora Roberts [not a complete favorite of mine, but when she's "on" she's "on."] I just finished her book Angels Fall which has been in my TBR pile more or less forever, and I have to say it deals with a heroine who has a really horrifying life-changing event to deal with and recover from, and Roberts does a first rate job in portraying her struggles realistically and touchingly.

The heroine is a professional chef, a rising star in the culinary world in Boston, when the massacre occurs. She's injured and deeply traumatized by it, and after struggling to recover in her familiar surroundings, decides that she can't stay there for the time being, and takes off cross-country to Wyoming [boy howdy, is that ever a change of scene!] to a tiny town called Angel's Fist.

During the ensuing events, she struggles to recover from her trauma, to tamp down her panic attacks and fears, to fight back against a villain who engineers false charges against her and tries to kill her and the hero.

The hero is vintage Roberts -- a tough guy with problems of his own, an author of mysteries who offers her a kind of tough sometimes reluctant love which is funny and not sentimental at all, but serves to ground her in reality. The dialogue is excellent, sometimes sharply funny, always direct. You know, the way people really talk.

If you're looking for a contemporary which is not formulaic, which seems real and human, you could do worse than try this book.

MarianneR