Once in a Blue Moon

August 31, 2009
As children, sisters Lindsay and Kerri Ann are shunted into the foster care system after their mother is arrested for selling drugs in Goudge’s (The Diary)
charming newest. Lindsay is fortunate enough to be adopted by a loving family, while younger Kerri Ann bounces from family to family, becoming a teenage runaway, getting into drugs and eventually losing custody of her own daughter. Thirty years after they last saw each other, Kerri Ann shows up on Lindsay’s doorstep in a last ditch effort to save herself. Lindsay, of course, has troubles of her own, and her nearly unrecognizable sister turning up is the last thing she needs. The tension in the sisters’ relationship is believable, and while romantic subplots are completely predictable, family dynamics are beautifully handled, particularly between the girls and the woman who tried to save them from foster care, stripper Miss Honi. A touching story with wide appeal, Goudge’s novel is a sharp example of dysfunctional family fiction.

September 1, 2009
Two sisters, one a marginally successful bookstore owner, the other a recovering drug addict, reunite after 30 years. Problems ensue.

Good girl Lindsay is desultorily involved with a handsome lawyer boyfriend who's as comfortable as a cardigan sweater—and about as exciting. The slick and evil Heywood Group wants to tear Lindsay from her home overlooking the Pacific and build a resort. In an attempt to boost sales at her bookstore, she arranges for bestselling author Randall Craig to do a signing, but he doesn't show. A bit later, he appears, apologizes, invites Lindsay out to dinner and eventually reawakens her slumbering eroticism. Randall isn't as perfect as he appears, however, for he's hiding a family secret. Meanwhile, bad girl Kerrie Ann, Lindsay's long-lost sister, turns up with problems of her own: a fight against addiction, a six-year-old daughter in foster care, a failed relationship with a fellow junkie and no job skills. Lindsay hires her sister, a high-school dropout who doesn't know Judy Blume from Harold Bloom, and Kerrie Ann quickly draws the attention of bad-boy-turned-good Ollie, coffee maker and baker extraordinaire. Much of the narrative concerns Lindsay's efforts to domesticate her occasionally sluttish sister and Kerrie Ann's attempt to gain custody of her daughter, now in the capable and loving hands of a successful dentist and his wife who do not want to give the child up. Eighty-year-old former stripper Honi Love, a family friend, provides folk wisdom and comic relief. Is redemption possible for Kerrie Ann? Will the good guys win? Will Randall earn Lindsay's love? Let's just say the plot is as predictable as the prose is flat.

One thing you can say about Goudge (The Diary, 2009, etc.): She knows the bestseller formula and sticks to it.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2009
Goudge, author of Immediate Family (2006), Woman in Red (2007), The Diary (2009), and other popular romances, uses a well-worn plot device in telling the story of sisters cast adrift in the foster care system after their mother is arrested for drug possession. Twenty-seven years later they are reunited, only to struggle with a multitude of problems. Lindsays beloved home on the northern California coast is the target of a real estate developer; drug-addicted Kerrie Anne, having lost custody of her daughter, is trying to kick her habit and recover her little Bella from the foster care system. The plot, predictable from sad start to happy ending, moves swiftly, propelled by recurrent crises in the sisters tangled lives. Characters are comfortable types with just enough tweaking to evoke reader interest. Romances, both old and new, abound. Fans of Goudges previous books, romance readers, and lovers of family sagas will enjoy the plot, characters, and resolution. Public libraries with a romance readership will want to add this book to a high-circulation area of the collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)