Accidental Happiness

December 20, 2004
Two women who loved the same man are thrown together after his death in this smoothly written second novel by the author of A Blessed Event
. After losing her 35-year-old husband in a freak accident, Gina, a freelance writer, moves onto his boat on the Charleston waterfront, drinks too much and attempts to create some semblance of a new life. She's shocked out of her grief when an intruder frightens her one night and she responds instinctively, discovering to her horror that she has shot seven-year-old Angel, who happens to be the daugher of her husband's ex-wife, Reese. While Angel is recuperating, mother and child share the boat with Gina, who gets help coping from handsome Derek, who works at the marina. Reese, a pretty, hippie-ish wanderer, is friendly but clearly unstable, and claims she isn't sure whether Benjamin was Angel's father. Gina can't help being suspicious, though a bond begins to form between her and Angel. When Reese's moods start to change radically from one moment to the next, it's clear that something is seriously wrong with her. Meanwhile, Gina is haunted by painful memories of a sister who died as a child. Page steps easily into the shoes of her appealingly flawed characters as she weaves a convincing web of unconventional family relationships. Agent, Susan Ginsburg at Writers House.

January 1, 2005
Three months after losing her young husband, Ben, Gina, who lost her younger sister at age 12, is only going through the motions. But then Ben's ex-wife, Reese, shows up with her seven-year-old daughter, Angel. Reese isn't sure if Ben is Angel's father, and the child unnerves Gina, whose only argument with Ben was over children. And Reese stirs up feelings of jealousy in Gina. In spite of her emotional discomfort, Gina, who is living on Ben's sailboat in a Charlotte marina, eventually realizes that the intrusion of these two people is bringing her back to the world of the living, and piercing the fog surrounding her. A touching novel about loss and the courage necessary to move beyond the past, Page's tale is filled with genuine and sympathetic characters who make the reader feel vested in the outcome of the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)