Blue Moon

August 30, 1993
Though its setting is quite different, this highly readable, richly detailed slice of life offers the same absorbing vision of a single family in a particular time and place as do Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles. Set in a Rhode Island fishing village-cum-resort town, the narrative focuses not on the upper-middle-class, white collar characters that Rice has heretofore brought to life in such well-reviewed novels as Crazy in Love and Secrets of Paris , but on a family of hardworking restaurateurs. The action revolves around Cass Keating Medieros, the youngest granddaughter of Sheila and Eddie Keating, founders of the family's successful restaurant, Lobsterville. Though Cass and her fisherman husband Billy have been ``madly in love since eighth grade, and proud of it,'' their marriage has begun to show the strain of caring for their partially deaf daughter Josie. Meanwhile, their teenaged son is experiencing his own first grand passion; their nephew dabbles in Satan worship; and Cass's embittered sister Nora blossoms when romance unexpectedly comes her way. These and other engaging subplots keep the narrative sailing briskly along; frisky sex scenes are another plus. A dangerous sea storm clears the decks for this multigenerational saga's unabashedly teary and heartwarming resolution. Rice writes with assurance and is particularly adept at illuminating the inner lives of the novel's youngest characters. 35,000 first printing; Literary Guild selection; author tour.

July 1, 1993
Novels such as Secrets of Paris ( LJ 4/15/91) and Stone Heart ( LJ 4/15/90) have led readers to expect hard-to-put-down plots and insights into family life from Rice. Here she presents four generations of a Rhode Island resort-town fishing family. The action focuses primarily on the granddaughters of the family founders (and mainly on the youngest, Cass), who are helping their parents run the family's waterfront restaurant. Some of the novel's best scenes involve the women's relationships, but much of it is predictable. Dad is thinking of retiring and selling off the waterfront property to developers, Cass's teenage son can't believe how incredibly dense his parents are, and Billy, Cass's husband, is nearly lost at sea. His rescue redeems the entire family and puts to rest any ideas about selling out. While Rice still has the knack for re-creating deep family feeling, and she handles well the dilemma Cass and Billy face in accepting their four-year-old, Josie, who has lost her hearing, the novel never rises much above its tired story lines. Fans may request, but otherwise, wait for her next novel. Literary Guild selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/93.-- Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 1993
Luanne Rice's novels are popular either because of or in spite of their being plot-heavy and bland. Her characters are flat, her dialogue stiff, and her situations seem made for TV, but, like many of her peers writing profitable commercial fiction, Rice does know how to please her readers. Her fifth novel is a multigenerational saga. The Keatings have dominated the Mount Hope waterfront for decades. The men venture out across the cold stormy Atlantic in pursuit of fish, while the women run their famous harbor restaurant. There are three adult Keating sisters. Bonnie, successful wife and mother, is fat but happy. Nora, lean but trampy, has never had a husband, but is about to abruptly change her life by giving up cigarettes and peroxide and falling for a fellow who doesn't believe in extramarital sex. The third sister, Cass, is the closest thing this episodic novel has to a focus. Pretty and lusty, Cass has enjoyed life, particularly her sexy husband, until her third child, Josie, suffered extensive hearing loss. As Rice switches back and forth from each character's troubles and triumphs, she both surprises us with genuine insights into our predicaments and irritates us (or is that comforts us) with her superficiality. ((Reviewed Sept. 15, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)