Lake News

June 28, 1999
The deserved popularity of Delinsky's novels resides in her ability to create appealing, believable characters who don't need to drop names and fashion labels to earn the reader's attention. Cabaret singer, pianist and music appreciation teacher Lily Blake, 34, finds pleasure in singing, since it's the only time she's free of the stutter that's plagued her all her life. She also finds comfort in her friendship with Archbishop, now Cardinal, Francis Rossetti. Whether they're performing together at archdiocese events or the exclusive Essex Club in Boston, Lily knows she can depend on the priest for understanding and comfort. But when a malicious reporter fabricates a story that Lily and the Cardinal have an illicit sexual relationship, Lily sees her name dragged through the mud. Suspended by the school where she teaches and told by the Essex Club not to return to work, a besieged Lily retreats to her small New Hampshire hometown of Lake Henry. There she holes up in the cabin her grandmother left to her, and confronts her estranged relationship with her widowed mother, Maida. Lily finds an unexpected ally in 40ish John Kipling, once a ruthless big-city journalist himself but now editor of small-time Lake Henry's newspaper. He is equally outraged at the lies that invade Lily's privacy, and together they fight for justice. Delinsky (Coast Road) plots this satisfying, gentle romance with the sure hand of an expert, scattering shady pasts and dark secrets among some of her characters, while giving others destructive family patterns and difficult family dynamics to contend with. Nature, and how it colors small town living, is described in clean, unembellished prose that only occasionally lapses into an awkward attempt at rural New Hampshire dialect. Agent, Amy Berkower. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild Super Release; Reader's Digest Condensed Books; Simon & Schuster Audio.

March 15, 1999
In the latest from the author of Three Wishes, a nasty reporter has falsely accused Lily Blake of an affair with a cardinal, forcing her to retreat to her home town in New Hampshire. There she links up with John Kipling, another renegade from big-time media who's now running the local paper.

May 1, 1999
Delinsky, author of the best-seller "Three Wishes" (1997), and more than 60 other novels, delivers an unusual plot and contemporary story line in her latest effort. Lily Blake's happy life is shattered after a rumormongering reporter accuses her, in print, of having an affair with a newly appointed cardinal. Although Lily and the cardinal were close friends, there was no love affair between them. The scandalous story has taken root, however, and Lily, besieged by reporters, finds that she is unable to return to her Boston apartment, where they are permanently camped out. Shunned by her friends, neighbors, and employer, who are all embarrassed by the false revelations, she soon realizes that she has no alternative but to escape to her hometown of Lake Henry, in rural New Hampshire. Vulnerable and wary, she makes the trip home, and once there, must dodge sneaky reporters and confront old demons in the face of a cold and unloving mother and a town that is still whispering about her youthful indiscretions. Despite her initial distrust and intuitive suspicions, she decides to ally herself with the town's handsome newspaperman (who has trust "issues" of his own) when he offers to help her exact revenge on the reporter who ruined her life. Neither as steeped in overblown sentimentality nor as chock-full of surprises as some contemporary romances, this hard-luck, happy-ever-after tale still will satisfy romance fans. ((Reviewed May 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)