Sandcastles

May 8, 2006
Given the title, July 4 pub date and settings on the Connecticut shore and County Cork coast, readers may expect the consummate beach feast from bestselling Rice (Summer of Roses
). She almost delivers: all the ingredients for a clambake are here, but Rice doesn't bother to light the fire. Honor Sullivan is a woman torn apart. Her famous earthworks artist husband, John, has spent six years in an Irish prison for killing a man who attacked their then 14-year-old daughter, Regis. Now he's back at Star of the Sea Academy, the convent and school in Connecticut where the Sullivans live and teach—or rather, is in the area, but hesitant to return home and face Honor's ire at being effectively abandoned. His notes find their way to Honor, perhaps via Sister Bernadette Ignatius, who runs the community and is John's sister, and Auntie Bernie to John and Honor's daughters. Or perhaps they come via Tom Kelly, still in love with Bernie and bone-loyal to John. Add a little moonlight mysticism, Regis's impending bad marriage and a red-haired nurse given up for adoption the same year Tom and red-haired Bernie went off to Ireland to trace family roots. If only Rice seemed to care. If only she didn't craft an entire paragraph out of the word "Moonstones," which will have fans wistfully recalling nuanced Rice fiction like Blue Moon
.

July 1, 2006
Rice -s ("Summer of Roses") latest novel, the theme of which is truth telling, revolves around the Sullivan family, torn apart but struggling to reconnect. John Sullivan is a rugged artist in the style of Andy Goldsworthy; his nature-based sculptures ( -sandcastles -) are temporary, preserved in photographs. Having spent six years in prison for a murder committed at the site of one of his sculptures, John is released only to be rejected by Honor, his painter wife. Honor now yearns for security, unlike her adrenaline-seeking husband. The family crisis has disturbed the lives of their daughters: the eldest, Regis, has made a poor choice of fiancé and teenage Agnes is seeking visions and seeing angels. Only when Regis admits that it was she, not her father, who killed the man vandalizing John -s sculpture, does the family begin to heal and reunite. After all, as Agnes puts it, -the truth matters. - Set in Connecticut and Ireland, this story will appeal to fans of family-relationship novels, such as those by Elizabeth Berg and Barbara Delinsky. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/1/06.]" -Carol J. Bissett, New Braunfels P.L., TX"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2006
Honor Sullivan travels from Connecticut to Ireland with her three young daughters to join her artist husband. Also an artist, Honor is worried about her marriage and her husband's extreme methods. John builds a sculpture on the rugged coast that turns into a nightmare for the family as John and his oldest daughter face a tormentor, and John is imprisoned for six years. When he is released, he returns to his beloved family and the Connecticut shore and finds that much has changed. Honor is scared of her reaction to John. She has worked hard to raise her family and teach art. As they struggle to find a way to reconnect as a family, more trauma ensues that will either bind them or drive them apart. With deft style, Rice delicately handles heartbreak and redemption, once again pleasing her fans with her latest story about the inhabitants of her beloved shore town.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)