From Publishers Weekly
In this tear-jerking novel by Hannah (Between Sisters), 38-year-old Angela Malone abandons a successful advertising career in Seattle to find comfort in West End, the small Pacific Northwest coastal town where she grew up. Pregnancy woes (chronic miscarriages, a baby who lived only for five days and a botched adoption) have caused her marriage to journalist Conlan to end in divorce. Her big, warmhearted Italian family welcomes her with open arms, and she throws herself into revamping the family restaurant, DeSaria's. Then she befriends hard-working teenager Lauren Ribido, who's in need of a new coat, some mothering and, later on, a place to live. Lauren's life is far worse than self-pitying Angie's—she's pregnant, her alcoholic mother has given up on her, and her rich boyfriend, David, is off to his first-choice college. Lauren can't go through with the abortion David encourages her to have, and the next step seems obvious: she should give the baby up to Angie, who's on the way to reconciling with Conlan. Hannah stacks the odds against Lauren almost absurdly, and makes her life with Angie a rose-tinted dream come true, but she paints a wrenching, convincing picture of the dilemma teenage mothers face. Familiar but warmly rendered characters, a few surprising twists and a bittersweet ending make this satisfying summer reading.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Best-selling Hannah's latest sensitive tale explores the need we all have for love in a portrait of two women of different ages and backgrounds. Angie Malone has come back to her small Washington State town after suffering the loss of a child, the end of a marriage, and the death of her father. Nestled in the bosom of her family, she tries to help with their failing restaurant. Her mother and sisters are glad she's home but realize that she needs something more as she copes with her grief, yet when Angie reaches out to 18-year-old Lauren Ribido, who seeks a job at the restaurant, they worry that she'll be disappointed. Lauren has not had an easy life. Her mother is an alcoholic who reminds Lauren constantly that she was a mistake and is the reason for their poverty, but Lauren is trying to rise above her circumstances through hard work and a quest for a college scholarship. Angie becomes attached to her and acts like a surrogate mother as they embark on a shaky friendship. Hannah captures the joy and heartache of family as she draws the reader into the lives of her characters and makes them feel like personal friends, proving once again why she is a star of women's fiction. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
