Margaret from Maine

November 26, 2012
Margaret Kennedy has been living on a down east farm for several years with her six-year-old son, Gordon. Her husband, Thomas, shot through the spine in Afghanistan, has been in a vegetative state for several years. Still, Margaret is content with her quiet life until Charlie King, a Foreign Service officer, arrives to escort her to a function in Washington, D.C. They have an instant connection and soon become lovers. Margaret puts off returning to Maine while taking a meandering road trip with Charlie and attempting to sort out her conflicting feelings. Her love for Charlie grows every day but she cannot ignore Thomas or the vow she made to him. Monninger astutely renders the tension in Margaret’s struggle between her heart and her belief in what’s right, but by the end, readers will puzzle over why she goes the direction she does and why her decision was so difficult. Margaret’s ultimate choice is a letdown; the conclusion seems contrived and diminishes the value of the story that Monninger crafted so well. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

November 1, 2012
With enemy fire slamming into his hand, leg and neck, Sgt. Thomas Kennedy instinctively uses his body to protect another soldier. Not because he is brave, but because he is a decent man from Maine. Monninger (The World as We Know It, 2011, etc.) exquisitely evokes the horrific ballet of a body riddled by bullets, as well as the enchantment of snow falling on lilacs. His latest novel pits love and duty against each other in the tale of Margaret Kennedy. Six years after her husband, Thomas, was shot in Afghanistan, Margaret carries on her duties selflessly, day after day. On a Maine farm, she rises early to tend the cows with her father-in-law and then turns to her 6-year-old son, Gordon, who has only ever known his father as a wounded, comatose veteran. Although her beauty has faded from fiery to elegant, Margaret seeks nothing more than to do right by Thomas. Little does she suspect how her life will change when she accepts an invitation to Washington D.C., to show support for a bill sponsoring aid for wounded soldiers. A handsome, wounded warrior himself, Foreign Service officer Charlie King arrives to personally escort her to the capital. Astonishingly quickly, Margaret and Charlie fall in love and into bed. And so begins a love affair filled with beautiful words and beautiful places, including the blooming of the rhododendrons along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yet their romance lives within a glass bubble. Can her love for Charlie keep Margaret from her loyalties back home? Neither the consequences of war nor the ties that bind generate a satisfying conflict for this emotional tryst.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2012
Margaret Kennedy's husband, Thomas, gravely injured in Afghanistan, is still in a vegetative coma six years later. Her life revolves around their six-year-old son, Gordon, and helping her father-in-law run their small family dairy farm in Maine. Then she's invited to Washington, D.C., for the signing of a bill to help families like hers. Her escort is Charlie King, a Foreign Service officer, and he and Margaret feel an immediate connection. The two embark on a whirlwind romance, attending an embassy ball and taking a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but their time together is short-lived since Margaret is still married and Charlie is leaving for Africa. Years pass before they're reunited. Monninger, author of Eternal on the Water (2010), covers themes of loss and longing with a few treacly moments, strengthening the impact of the novel with his insights into the timely topic of the cruel toll of modern warfare, and the beauty of his depictions of the eastern U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)