"Can your destiny be changed?"
Whether your destiny is predetermined, and you have no
choice, or whether you can make decisions and actions to
change it is the underlying theme of Maeve Binchy's latest
release QUENTINS. Ella Brady is the only child of a family who wants only
the best for her, and has strived all their adult lives to
provide only the best for her. Fate steps in and puts
Ella into the path of Don Richardson wealthy financial
planner. Well into the relationship Ella finds herself to have been
duped by the unscrupulous Don Richardson. This puts her
in the position of feeling that she has to repay large
sums of money to many people. She starts to work at a
variety of jobs to earn the money she needs. One of the jobs is for Firefly Films. They need someone
to pitch a film to philanthropist Derry King. Ella comes
up with a brilliant idea of showing a changing Ireland
through her hometown's restuarant QUENTINS. Ella is sent
to New York to win the grant from Derry King's foundation,
and the story of the restaurant begins to unfold. As Ella has brought changes upon herself, many in her
community find it easier to bring changes upon them. I
like to think that it's the idea that they may be sharing
their stories with the world that make them decide to see
if they can change their destinies. In the end Ms. Binchy does a wonderful job of having all
the characters come full circle, and confident in
themselves. I'm under the impression that this is a
village where the people don't care if you're a family
memeber or not...all are family. All are treated equally
and respected for their particular talents. I've read several of Ms. Binchy's books and have several
left to read. At the end of each I feel as though I'm
saying goodbye to friends, and look forward to meeting
them again in the next book. If you're looking for
straight romance then this is probably not what you're
looking for. If you're interested in a wonderful piece of
fiction then I'm confident you will enjoy QUENTINS.
Reviewed by Sandi Shilhanek
Posted December 18, 2002
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