"terrific insightful character study"
Thirty-one years old Atlanta accountant Caroline Collier
has not lived only existed in thirteen years since the
death of her beloved younger brother Jude. She has the
scar on her chest to remind her of what he donated to her
when he died at the accident that almost killed her too.
Now she is staying with her overbearing mother Margaret at
the family vacation cottage at Lake Ophelia in the North
Carolina mountains while she recovers from recent panic
attacks caused by stress on the job and failures to gain
closure from Jude's death and her father's desertion. Next door is former attorney turned master furniture maker
Drew Reed and his teenage daughter Jewel. His late wife
Shelby Ann was actually Jude's significant other before
the teen died. Jewel and her Granny Rainy begin to get
Caroline to quilt and swim while Drew finds himself
attracted to the girl next door who when she is not
scowling is pretty. Though the trio and Margaret reach
out to her, Caroline needs to let go of the past if she
wants to live life to the fullest with people who love her. This is a terrific insightful character study that focuses
on several individuals struggling differently with the
deaths of loved ones. Caroline who has not completed the
five phases of grief is time-locked in the grieving stage
mostly because she was there and in his death he saved her
life. Her mother cannot stop fussing while her father
fled to the West Coast and like Drew and an injured loon
reinvented his life. Granny turned to her granddaughter
and Jewel cherishes her late mother's diary as her
survival mechanism. Fans of a deep poignant family drama
will appreciate this powerful look at how people deal with
the death of a loved one. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted April 25, 2006
SummaryCaroline Collier is a woman bogged down in the harsh
realities of a life barely lived. Stress from her
all-consuming job as an accountant has given her panic
attacks, forcing her to take a leave of absence from work.
And though her chances of relaxing in the presence of her
overbearing, perfect mother are slim, she joins her at the
family's vacation home in the mountains of North Carolina.
Though Caroline loves the serene beauty of Lake Ophelia,
peace of mind is not to be found. Memories of her beloved
younger brother, who died when she was seventeen, continue
to haunt her, while the tensions between her mother and her
still simmers. Only their neighbors, the widower and
daughter of once of Caroline's childhood friends, seem able
to penetrate her cool reserve, giving Caroline the courage
to face her biggest fears—and dive headfirst into life...
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