A GENTLE RAIN by Deborah Smith

Before this quickie review, I must apologize about its brevity. I have a thundering bad headache and I wanted to get something about the book posted, so mea culpa.

Deborah Smith does not write the same book twice. What she does very well is get her hooks into you and then just doesn't let go. You find yourself invested, interested and sometimes riveted by her stories. I'm struck with the industriousness of her characters. She rarely has time or room for a lazy slacker in her stories. Her characters may not lead big lives but they certainly have full ones. There is always so much heart and life to her characters. A GENTLE RAIN is no exception. As I read it I was immersed in her characters pain and joys deeply. They felt real and knowable.

In A GENTLE RAIN we have Ben, the tough Florida cowboy with an unusual and motley group of people who help him run his cattle ranch, and Kara, who feels lost and orphaned at 32 when her parents die. Grief stricken Kara is stunned to find out her parents were not her parents after all. Rather than make the story about a search this is a tale about discovery. Finding her biological parents is not the journey Kara is on. Their location as part of the quasi-family Ben has formed on his ranch is never the mystery. Why and how it happened that she was adopted by the richy-rich Whittenburg family, raised in a rain forest and left extremely wealthy after their deaths is what this book is about.

While I loved this story and the characters...and I did...alternating between Kara and Ben's POV was at times distracting. When the individual narrations got lengthy I would sometimes forget who the "I" was. But this is a small quibble when balanced with the rest of the story.

While the plot is a familiar story Ms. Smith imbues it with a few quirks, twists, and lots of heart. A very enjoyable read for an autumn evening. I hope you'll try it.

Vegas Baby Vegas...

ARE YOU A TRICKER...
OR A TREATER?HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well, I caught with all of my blog hopping last night because I probably won't have a chance to get back out here what with Halloween tonight, my sister and her family come tomorrow night and then on Friday we leave for the family birthday party in Las Vegas.

I have to admit that a week ago I was thrilled to bits. Now that I'm in the thick of getting ready and just had a new project dumped on me at work, well let's just say I'm a little less enthused. Shhhhh...don't tell Beanie because he's so excited he can't stand it. There is nothing that kid likes better than a room full of people and a party. In fact even though we have enough rooms and beds for everyone the cousins are already planning to all stay in the same room. God help us all.

I'm reading. My nose is buried in PANDORA'S DAUGHTER by Iris Johansen. No new ground, but I find I still like her books. I found out Deborah Smith's new book A GENTLE RAIN is available for order. Even though the link is to Amazon I think I actually ordered mine from Barnes and Noble. I'm hoping it gets here in time to take to Vegas to read. You can also order direct from Belle Books, Ms. Smith's (with others) very own pub company, but it's slightly more expensive that way.

It's my intention to do some "on the road" posts. If I get a chance to do them just remember I'm typing on my Treo. It's small and typos happen...

JADED

Off and on there's discussion about whether or not because we read so much we become more difficult to please and jaded. I think this is probably more likely to happen to those of us who read one specific genre almost exclusively.

GG and I were talking about this over the weekend. Since I've been on a reading binge, so has he. In fact he asked me to give him a book to read. Now normally he reads military, courtroom suspense, or westerns. However, he gets a kick out of reading one of my books every now and then. Surprisingly, in the last two weeks he's read DANGEROUS LOVER by Lisa Marie Rice and he just finished FORCE OF NATURE by Suzanne Brockmann. I can't remember his reading two of my books back to back before...ever.

FORCE OF NATURE was the second Brockmann book he's read. He liked the book well enough. He sort of rolled his eyes a bit over Jules and Robin's love story but he wasn't put off by it at all. He wanted more action! Hands down he liked DANGEROUS LOVER better for it's spiciness and the alpha male. My sweet, kind, considerate husband thinks he's an alpha male. Yeah...NO! But let's keep that between us. It makes him happy to believe it and it amuses me to no end.

It's fun hearing his reactions to books because he's a more eclectic reader than I am not to mention a news junkie so he always has an interesting perspective to offer me. Of course, the drawback is I don't think the book has been written that he thinks has too much sex and not enough story. Oy!

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that sometimes when we talk amongst ourselves I think we are a little jaded. My theory goes something like this. Because we read such a high volume of books maybe we don't savor and appreciate a book that someone who reads less frequently might. Or, because we read so much we have higher expectations. Either way, those of us who are prolific readers are discriminating and hard graders I think. That's why having a discussion with someone who reads our favorite genre so infrequently is so much fun. And interesting. And, uh...stimulating.

Meanwhile since GG's on a roll he asked me for another book. I wanted to give him THE HOLDING by Claudia Dain because Jane at Dear Author said Ned liked it. But alas my copy is in one of the tubs in the storage shed and way too much work to rescue. So I'm thinking of giving him HIGH NOON by Nora Roberts or CROSSROADS CAFE by Deborah Smith. I don't think he's ready for FAIRYVILLE by Emma Holly, do you?

What do you guys think? Is there a favorite book of yours that your DH or brother or Dad or best male friend read that I need to be handing over to GG? What would you recommend?

THE CROSSROADS CAFE by Deborah Smith

THE CROSSROADS CAFÉ by Deborah Smith

Book Description (from Amazon)


Cathyrn Deen has it all -- extraordinary beauty, wealth and privilege. A former southern beauty queen turned mega-successful actress, she has happily led a fairytale life. When a fiery car accident on a California highway leaves her horribly scarred, she secludes herself at the wild mountain farm she inherited from her bohemian grandmother, high in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Though determined to spend her life hiding from paparrazzi and curiosity seekers, Cathyrn is drawn into the warm, supportive local community via her indefatigably loyal cousin, Delta Whittlespoon, famed owner and head chef at The Crossroads Cafe, a legendary mountain diner.

Delta draws Cathyrn out of the shadows with the help of another area recluse, transplanted New York architect Thomas Mitternich, who is struggling with his own demons. Thomas still hasn't come to terms with the deaths of his wife and son in the World Trade Center on 9-11.

Together, Cathyrn and Thomas slowly begin to forge an amazing life together.

The hardest part of writing a review is being able to adequately explain what my reading experience was like. I remember pondering when I started this book how I would describe it to another reader. I wondered if I could describe it and do the book justice. I've read this review a couple of times and I'm not sure I do. I hope you'll read the excerpt at the Belle Book site before you make a final decision.

While it took me a few chapters to get into the particular style Ms. Smith used in this book...that of going back and forth between the H/H POV to tell the story, I was fully emersed in the journey Ms. Smith was taking me on. This was another one of those occasions where I was glad I picked up the book on a Sunday when I could read with little to no interruption.

This book is multi-faceted and multi-layered. Every page has texture. The characters are not "like" any other characters Ms. Smith has written about. This is one of my favorite things about her writing. The characters in her books are whole and unto themselves in each story. While familiar themes of the south and deep family roots might repeat themselves in her books, the characters are individuals with so many layers that they could not be confused with any other character.

I ran a gamut of emotions while reading this book because I was so entrenched in the painful journeys of Cathryn and Thomas individually and as a couple. These are people who have suffered...terribly, horribly. Yet, Ms. Smith shows that most of us want to move on, want to be better, even when on some level we don't really believe we will be better, we try anyway.

While I wouldn't call this book dark, it is hardly a light and fluffy read either. It deals with real life issues. Usually when characters don't have to worry about pesky things like making a mortgage or rent payment alienates me from a story, the fact that Thomas and Cathryn don't have particular money issues is used as a device to show how having money can actually isolate a person from their own life. Money can be used to isolate a person from dealing with their problems.

What bugged me? Belle Books is a small pub house co-founded by Ms. Smith and some other southern women writers. So I understand that it is probably a small operation. However, my complaint is about the editing in this particular book. I can't remember another reading experience where editing has bothered me so much in my read. I've experienced some bumpy rides with editing before, but I usually can pass it by. Maybe because I was so immersed in this story is why it bugged me.

Sometimes the errors came up so unexpectedly that I had to re-read a passage several times before I realized there was an actual error and that I wasn't missing something in the story. The errors were small typos like an "if" placed where there should have been an "is". This happened about half a dozen times. While it annoyed me...and I want to warn others about it, it would not and does not stop me from recommending this book.

This was a very worthwhile read with characters I'm still thinking about and wondering "What would I do in their shoes?"