The Sweet By and By

June 8, 2009
In this heartwarming collaborative debut from country music star Evans and Christian romance veteran Hauck (Sweet Caroline
), antique dealer Jade Freedom Fitzgerald of Whisper Hollow, Tenn., must make peace with her hippy mama, Beryl Hill, before she can marry her lawyer fiancé, Maxwell Charles Benson. But wait, there's more: she also needs an annulment from an elopement at 16, to resolve her anger at the father who abandoned her, to learn how to get along with a pushy mom-in-law-to-be and take responsibility for a dire choice she made 13 years before. The arrival of Jade's mother and her tempestuous little sister, Willow, before the big day shakes things up further, especially after Beryl reveals an unhappy secret of her own. Comforting in that Southern way and inspirational without being too saccharine, Evans and Hauck's first outing together shows promise.

Jade Freedom Fitzgerald will marry upper-class Tennessee lawyer Maxwell Charles Benson in one week. Before the wedding she resolves to make peace with her mother, an aging hippie; annul a previous marriage; and settle her issues regarding her father, who abandoned her. With Southern intonation, Lisa Seals delivers this redemptive family narrative from country music star Sara Evans and romance novelist Rachel Hauck. Using subtle inflections to differentiate characters, Seals captures the players in this dysfunctional family and family-to-be with exquisite emotional detail that many will identify with. However, the shifts between Jade's past and present make the story hard to follow. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine