Coast Road

June 29, 1998
Set in Big Sur, Calif., Delinsky's latest contemporary romance (after Three Wishes) sings the praises of family and friendship. Rachel Keats, outdoorsy artist, mother of two and ex-wife of architect Jack McGill, is in a coma after a car crash on her way to a book-club meeting. When Jack hears the news in a late-night phone call from Rachel's best friend, flinty Katherine Evans, he puts aside pressing business obligations in San Francisco and rushes to her side. Rachel shows no sign of waking up soon, so Jack moves into her house to take care of their daughters, 15-year-old Samantha and 13-year-old Hope. Meanwhile, Jack keeps slipping into flashback memories of his life with Rachel but can't seem to figure out why she left him six years earlier. Luckily, Katherine is there to give him the answers: Jack is selfish, uncommunicative and materialistic. As Jack gets to know Rachel's life, her friends and the family she has made, he realizes Katherine is right and resolves to show Rachel he's changed--if only she'll wake up. Sexual stereotypes fuel this predictable saga, and the wait for Rachel's recovery can't sustain tension in the plot. Samantha's wild teenaged antics and the early, prickly stages of a romance between Katherine and Rachel's neurologist lend the only doses of excitement to a story that's stretched far too thin.

July 1, 1998
Jack McGill's feelings for his artist ex-wife, Rachel, are put to the acid test when he receives news that she is lying comatose in a hospital after an automobile accident. Jack, a rising San Francisco architect and workaholic, still does not understand why Rachel left him and took their two daughters to live in Big Sur country, but he assumes the parental role for the teenage girls and moves into Rachel's house. Jack's second chance at being a real father is fraught with confrontations. He has deadlines and major clients to impress, and his daughters are leery of trusting him to care for them. Ultimately, Jack is challenged to make some life-altering career choices and to decide whether he should try to win Rachel back. Delinsky's (Three Wishes, LJ 9/1/97) latest love story is filled with heartache, self-discovery, and renewal. Recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/98.]--Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ., Highland Heights

December 1, 1998
YA-Jack McGill, a successful San Francisco architect, receives a telephone call in the middle of the night informing him that his ex-wife has been in an auto accident and is comatose in the hospital. Since her prognosis is unpredictable, Jack must put his life and career on hold and take on the role of full-time Dad to their two teenage daughters. While he is in Big Sur, neighbors, friends, and fellow artists fill Jack in on Rachel's life without him, and he begins to understand what went wrong with their marriage. YAs will relate to the daughters as they reveal their own emotions about divorced parents, a life-threatening accident, and a prom date that gets out of hand. A realistic portrayal of difficult emotional situations.-Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA

May 1, 1998
Jack McGill wakes in the middle of the night to an emergency phone call: his ex-wife Rachel's car crashed through the guardrail on a coastal road near her home in Big Sur, and she has been taken to surgery. Will Jack come? He hurries to her side more for their daughters' sake than for Rachel, still not understanding why she left him six years ago. But Samantha and Hope need him, and he's still their father. When Jack arrives at the hospital, he's met by Katherine, Rachel's best friend, who updates him on her condition: Rachel is in a coma. All they can do is wait. As Jack prepares to step back into family life, he promises the sleeping Rachel that he will care for their daughters. As the slow days pass, Jack has to deal with withdrawn Hope, belligerent Samantha, and protective Katherine, who keeps asking him: Why is he here? What does he hope to gain? Will he hurt Rachel, again? Jack spends his time sitting next to Rachel reminiscing about their marriage, learning about the new Rachel from her friends, and realizing that he wants to be part of the family again. He wonders, Will Rachel regain consciousness? Does she still love him? Delinsky delivers an emotion-packed journey of truth and redemption, firmly cementing her status as a best-selling writer of top-notch books. Although the end of the story is never in doubt, the sheer impact of the whole makes this a winner, sure to appeal to readers of Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, and Jayne Ann Krentz. ((Reviewed May 1, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)