RAINWATER by Sandra Brown

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

This is a story about a woman, Ella Barron, who owns and runs a boarding house during the Depression in Texas. The title of the book comes from the last name of one of her boarders, David Rainwater.

Ella's life is not an easy one. Running a boarding house with a seven year old son with special needs, Ella's life is one of hardship and endless chores. Into this world comes David Rainwater who has an affect on everyone who meets him during a volatile and tumultuous time in their small farming community.

Words you may have heard associated with this book like "tear jerker" "different" "not a romance" are all true. This is a slim volume of 245 pages priced at $23.99. Frankly a bold move for Ms. Brown when this book is not a romance and would not necessarily have her normal built in audience of romance readers. OTOH, I bought it, albeit heavily discounted, at Costco, so maybe marketing people know more than I think they do.

Unbelievably moved by this book, I'm writing this within hours of having finished it. Right now it is so fresh I cannot even think of the characters or the story without weeping. Consequently, I'm unable to grade this story right now. I'm trying desperately to decide whether or not I'm glad I read it, which is a little bit of irony because Ella and David have a similar discussion about Hemingway's FAREWELL TO ARMS and voice the same question. Can one be glad they've read a book when one knows in advance the ending might not be happy?

This book was devastating and even though I can't say whether or not I'm glad I read it, it was a compelling read. The second half of RAINWATER I couldn't read fast enough. Am I glad I met these characters? I guess I'd have to say yes. If I had read reviews in advance like this one would I still buy the book? I don't know.

I do know that I will be thinking about this book for a long time and wondering what I was supposed to take away from it. The best I can say to you right now is that if you want to read something different and something powerful, RAINWATER will certainly fill the bill.

RICOCHET by Sandra Brown

Imagine my surprise and delight to read two good books back to back and in hardcover no less!! I took a chance on a Sandra Brown's new hardcover and bought RICOCHET. It's been sometime since I bought one of Ms. Brown's books in hardcover so I was sort of holding my breath. It was actually the Publisher's Weekly review that mentioned it was one of her better books in a long time that prompted me to give it a go.

Let's see if I can do a quickie summary of the story. There's a homocide cop Duncan Hatcher who while having a few vices is one of those straight arrow cops who never compromises. He finds himself called out on a case at a well known superior judge's home one Cato Laird. Duncan and his partner DeeDee are investigating the shooting of an intruder that Judge Laird's beautiful wife Elise has killed.

On the surface it appears that the shooting is an open and shut case of self defense until the beguiling Elise seeks Duncan out and makes a wild allegation that Duncan doesn't buy for a minute...much as he'd like to.

There is lots of delicious tension in this book and for once some legitimate twists and turns. One of the great things for me was that as soon as I had a thought or had drawn a conclusion about the plot Ms. Brown very capably either provided an explanation or sent you down another path. It kept me drawn in throughout the story.

This was a very satisfying read. Neither too neat nor too complicated. The characters are interesting and all too human. Neither Duncan nor Elise fit into neat compartments as typical H/H.

I used to wait for Ms. Brown's releases with baited breath but in recent years I haven't been able to really get into her books. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.