Re-Read Challenge: Parting Gifts by Lorraine Heath

PARTING GIFTS by Lorraine Heath
A Diamond Homespun Romance - Diamond Books
December 1994

I have no clue whatsoever what made me pick up this book. I was standing in the office in front of my bookshelves, it caught my eye and I thought to myself, "I think I'll read that for Nath's Re-read Challenge this month". Just think what might happen if I actually stop to think about what I'm doing before I grab a book?

This one is set in Texas in 1881. The book opens with Maddie knocking on the back door of the town brothel, desperate, hungry, barefoot. She's sold everything she can to eat and survive, tried to find respectable work, but finding herself alone and unprotected decides there's nothing for it but the whorehouse to survive.

Once the half-decent Madam finds out that Maddie is a virgin she decides more money can be made by auctioning Maddie off for her first time.

Charles is in town to buy cattle. He and his brother run an inn and stagecoach stop. The railroad is taking more and more of their business away and Charles' brother Jesse has been saving money for them to buy cattle as an alternative way to earn a living as the inn business plays out. It's also to realize their father's dream of having a cattle ranch in Texas.

While Jesse stays behind at the inn, Charles travels to town and uses the cattle money to bid on Maddie. Once he has Maddie in the room he proposes to her. Charles is widower with two small children. Going on gut instinct, Charles believes Maddie is tonic he and his family need.

It is actually at this point the story begins as Charles returns to the inn without the cattle, without the money and with Maddie in tow as his wife.

The title is a play on words of gifts Charles seeks to bestow on the people he loves best. He always brings a gift home to his children and as the story begins his gift is Maddie.

This description only scratches the surface of this story. There's twists and turns, many of which you can see coming, but they are handled deftly and in a realistic way in Ms. Heath's hands.

While I still liked this story very much, it didn't pack quite the punch it did the first time I read it. Still, it's a good book, and though it doesn't have much of the steam we've come to expect as a matter of course in our romances these days, it certainly doesn't lack for its breathless and meaningful moments.

Well done and an enjoyable read.

My Grade = B

Re-Read Challenge: Banner O'Brien by Linda Lael Miller

Banner O'Brien by Linda Lael Miller
Tapestry Books Copyright 1984

The first Linda Lael Miller books I read were from the used bookstore. My boys were small, my book budget even smaller as I was a SAHM. Frankly, I bought the Tapestry line because the books were older and less expensive than many books even in the UBS. Did you see the price? Only $2.95 I think I was paying something like 25% of cover price and less when I had books to trade.

Anyway, I fell in love with the Corbin family. BANNER O'BRIEN is the first book and is the story about Adam Corbin and Banner O'Brien both doctors in Washington territory in the late 1880s.

This month I didn't chose the book because it was on my mind and wouldn't leave me alone like last month's selection, LETTERS TO KELLY. This time I was looking at my bookshelves and couldn't make up my mind. In fact, I was favoring reading IGUANA BAY by Theresa Weir when, by happenstance, my eyes wandered to this book. I literally shrugged to myself and picked it up.

It's been eons since I've read this but I certainly remember how much I enjoyed it that first time. Vividly.

However, this time the reading experience was a bit different. I noticed right off that there wasn't much character development or time passing before the characters declared they were in love. Oh, not to each other, but nonetheless they each revealed they were in love by around page 60. I remember wondering what the rest of the pages were going to be filled with if there wasn't any more conflict or tension than that. I have no recollection of this bothering me when I read this before, but it sort of did this time around.

As it turns out the book has plenty of conflict, maybe too much for one book to handle. However, Ms. Miller does start a story arch in this book that will continue through the other books in the series.

You could certainly do worse than to read this or any of the other books in the series especially if you are like me and enjoy reading about this tumultuous and exciting time of change and growth in our country's history. One thing I did recall while reading and being re-introduced to the Corbin family, my favorite book of the series was CORBIN'S FANCY. So who knows, it might be my March re-read.

My final grade = C+

2009 Re-Read Challenge

Letters to Kelly by Suzanne Brockmann

This is for Nath's Re-Reading Challenge. I haven't formally signed up for her challenge because in truth I rarely re-read even though my bookshelves are full of books I love. My theory has always been that when I'm old and can't afford books my shelves will be full of all these great books to re-read. This book fits that premise to a 'T'.

Every once in awhile, as I mentioned in previous posts, a book from the past pops into my head and just won't let go. The irony of this is that on any other day you may mention the title of the very same book and I will look at you with a blank stare. My brain and books are tricky like that.

So I fell into the re-read challenge because LETTERS TO KELLY just wouldn't leave me alone.

In this story the H/H meet when she is only 12 years old. Of course Jax doesn't have any romantic feelings for his best friend's little sister right then, but over the course of the next several years he watches her grow up and his feelings change.

Kelly O'Brien is not your average 17-year old. For one thing her parents have made sure she has a good sense of self. Sure she thinks Jax is fun, good looking, smart and a good person, but she isn't a little girl following her brother's best friend around wearing her heart on her sleeve and carrying a trunk sized crush. She has plans for herself and her life.

When her date gets sick and can't go to prom, Jax who has been waiting for Kelly to get a little older, volunteers to take her instead. They have a wonderful evening, stay out too late and almost cross a line that Jax had promised Kelly's brother, and himself, he wouldn't.

The argument and split friendship that follow are not only plausible but realistic. Ms. Brockmann does well to portray the worry, betrayal and outrage a friend might feel finding his kid sister in a clinch with someone seven years older than she is.

What happens? Separation. A separation that is painful for both of them, but in drastically different ways. More than three years go by. Between them they survive marriage, divorce, going back to college and imprisonment in a Third World country.

This little category romance explores whether or not their individual experiences apart have created too great a chasm for them to cross to begin again. Trust, obviously, plays a big part of this.

I enjoyed my second reading of this story. I thought that Ms. Brockmann had just the right touch dealing with the age difference and did so honestly. I picked this up thinking that Jax had been a soldier. I was surprised, but not disappointed when I remembered and realized he was a journalist and not a man in the military. However, my memory of the sensibility of a young man being far away from home and longing for the people he loves was present and tangible. I'm glad I read this one again.

Keeping the Candle Burning

Do you ever, out of the blue suddenly think of a book you read weeks, months, years ago and it just won't let go?

This happens to me every once in a while and I sometimes just can't shake the book loose. Sometimes it isn't even a book I liked. It might be a book that had very little impact when I read it, but suddenly it's a new obsession.

This past week that happened to me. I started thinking about a book I'd read back in April 2003. The book is a little category romance written by Suzanne Brockmann called LETTERS TO KELLY. Fortunately I have the book so I pulled it off the shelves and read it. It wasn't, after almost 6 years, exactly the way I remembered it. For one thing I'd thought the hero was in the military. He isn't and the military connection is what lead me to think about the book. I'll be reviewing it for Nath's Re-Read Challenge at the end of the month.

Anyway, I know one of the reasons I began to obsess over this particular book was having seen the movie IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH last weekend.

Saying 'Wow!' doesn't begin to describe the experience I had watching this movie. It stars Tommy Lee Jones,in a role that he was nominated for an Academy Award for last year. It also stars h Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon. This is a quiet movie. It's very tangible and realistic. It's the story about one soldier and his family.

If you read this post you know I've been thinking a lot recently about the men and women who serve in the military. At home or abroad it's a pretty thankless job. As it often is for me when I obsess over something one thought leads to another. I can't help but relate what I see or read to my own life and relationships. It's the eternal question, what if that were me, what would I do?

The movie is stark and no frills. It isn't gentle in it's truth. It isn't political, at least I don't think it is, but it gives an honest picture of what war does not only to the soldier, but to his family, community and country.

I snagged the trailer and posted it below. Check it out. The movie is on HBO right now and it's also available for purchase on DVD.

All I can think of right now is to keep the candle burning, praying and hoping for all our men and women serving to some home safe and sound to their families. My good thoughts and prayers are the least of what they deserve for what they do.