March 8, 2010
Jenny Lucas has returned to her childhood home, a refuge of picket fences and lace-covered tabletops. But with an intensity likely garnered from years of unpublished suspense writing, debut novelist and blogger Holmes slowly unveils the hidden angst in this homecoming. A single mother, Jenny must find caregivers who will raise her five-year-old daughter when she’s gone. She’s forced to mend relations with two possible custodians: the baby’s father, who doesn’t know he has a child, and her own cold-hearted father. As Jenny comes to face her future as well as her past, dramatic emotions yield to an appreciation of life and an enjoyment of the grace of fleeting moments. There can be no happy ending, but Holmes ties a neat bow of acceptance around this haunting tale that packs an emotional wallop. Keep tissues near.
May 15, 2010
Jenny Lucas has to go home againshes dying of cancer. As the single mother of a young daughter, Isabella, Jenny knows the little girl needs a family. Theres only one problem. Jenny never told her high-school sweetheart, David, that he had a daughter. Now she has only months to heal old wounds, and she prays this will be done before her death. Holmes characters are so real they pop from the pages: David, his current wife (a nice surprise), an earthy grandmother, a bitter father, and Jenny herself. Healing doesnt come easily in this dramatic, emotional, faith-based novel about a prodigal daughter who seeks forgiveness on an unforgiving deadline.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)