For grittiness, Nora Roberts gives Patricia Cornwell a run for her money in this novel. The brutal kidnapping of a young woman in 1991, and the horrible abuse she was subjected to for 25 years, are the book’s undercurrents. Juxtaposed to the wealth and love her estranged family enjoys during these years, her life seems even more brutal. The characters of family, victims, and victimizers, leap to life, as they do in every Roberts’ story. I could not put this book down.
Print Length: 477 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250123070
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (May 30, 2017)
Publication Date: May 30, 2017
Sold by: Macmillan
The fens or fenlands, with its low-lying villages and farms, is an ancient, tradition-steeped part of eastern England. When Amber burns out at her stressful PR job in London, she moves her life to Skylark Farm, an apple farm in the fenlands managed by her boyfriend, Jake, and his 70-something Aunt Annie. As Amber settles in with her new life and friends, we also meet the farm's other inhabitants, including Pip, the pudgy pony, and Patricia, a very broody old hen, who patiently sits on eggs waiting for little chicks to hatch, despite the fact that this is impossible since there is no rooster at the farm.
B.J. Daniels has a unique gift. She weaves plots within plots within plots effortlessly. If this was any other author but Daniels, the layer upon layer of plots and characters would exhaust any reader trying to keep names, dates and subplots straight. Daniels, however, has the magic touch. Not only are her books not confusing, they are addictive for readers who love meaty plots with tons of intrigue--like me.
Kate Waithman, a music therapist who works with children, has been a widow for 12 years. Now at age 40 she is engaged to the "perfect" man. Suddenly she starts having vivid dreams where she is still living with her husband, and they have a 12 year old, hard of hearing daughter. The dreams are so real, Kate begins a course in American Sign Language in order to better communicate with her dream daughter. Through this sign language course, she expands her music therapy to include hard of hearing foster children, and her life takes an unexpected turn.
On a sunny day in April, the ground shook and a thick grey fog encircled Greengage farm, a communal enclave near Sonoma, California. It was 1906, and the great San Francisco earthquake had just struck. Joseph, the British founder of Greengage, soon realizes that the fog kills anyone who tries to go through it. Four months later, the now isolated community still has not found a way to break through this fog. Then Lux, an unwed mother, struggling to make ends meet in San Francisco while caring for a young son and working in a bar, stumbles through the fog. Lux, however, is from 1975. Apparently the only person able to travel through the fog unharmed, Lux discovers that time flows differently in Greengage; while the community has experienced a passage of time of only four months since the earthquake, close to 70 years have passed on the outside.