Emerald Windows

September 17, 2001
Seasoned Christian suspense novelist Blackstock disappoints with this run-of-the-mill romance. The second Christian novel this year (Linda Dorrell's True Believers
is the other) to focus on the renovation of a church and, in particular, the female protagonist's design of its stained glass windows, this story features a lovestruck pair of artists who are supposed to be offbeat and tortured, but in fact are ill-defined and bland. Brooke, a 20-something stained glass artist who, amid scandal, left her hometown immediately after her high school graduation, comes back to do a job and face the gossips who drove her away. Unfortunately for readers, the scandal—a misinterpreted hug between student and teacher—has no teeth, and it strains credulity to think that any town, even the caricaturish Hayden, Mo., could make so much of so little. Also problematic is that the former teacher, who is only six years Brooke's senior, is motivated to convert her to Christianity mostly because he wants to marry her, but would never marry an unbeliever. Stereotypes abound, including a wealthy, almost mechanically mean-spirited villainess and an Italian family complete with a dead grandfather whose clichéd proverbs are remembered in over-the-top dialect ("You put-a care and-a love into everything you do, Nicky, and that's-a quality"). Blackstock generates enough interest in these characters and their predicaments to keep the pages turning, but the novel's predictable conclusion is telegraphed from the first page.

November 1, 2001
Promising art student Brooke Martin fled Hayden, MO, the day after graduation when a prominent matron spreads ugly rumors about her and her young teacher, Nick Marcello. Seven years later, Brooke returns to deal with the ghosts of her past and to accept a commission to create stained-glass windows for Hayden Bible Church. When she learns that she will be working with Nick, Brooke almost flees again. But she decides to stand up for herself this time, without family support but aware that Nick means more to her than she ever thought possible. As Brooke catches Nick's enthusiasm for a series of windows depicting the covenants of the Bible, she also begins to share his passion for the Lord and starts searching deep within the Bible for answers to her questions. Only by finding love with the Lord will Brooke be able to find a love closer to home. Christian suspense novelist Blackstock (Sun Coast Chronicles) shows how strength found in the Lord can have a profound impact on a single life and then spread to others who do not even know they are searching for Him. For all collections.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2002
Blackstock's "Emerald Windows "is about a stained-glass artisan, Brooke Martin, who returns to her hometown at the invitation of her former art teacher, Nick Marcello. He has a job for her remodeling an old church. Brooke fled the town at her high-school graduation--and Nick lost his job--because of accusations they were having an affair. They weren't, but small towns can be vicious, so the two must fight for their reputations against a nasty but powerful local matron who stirs up the town's innate prudery. An intelligent premise, though Blackstock's story would have been more compelling had Nick and Brooke been just a little involved rather than the victims of an obviously spurious conspiracy. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)