Copyright: 2006
Pages: 432 (paperback edition)
Setting/Type: Contemporary/Straight Romance
Publisher: Mira
Author Website: www.StefAnnHolm.com (Love, love, love this site. Beautiful and distinctive design and lots of information.)
Grade: B+
Single-mother Lucy Carpenter hopes she has made the right decision moving her two sons to Red Duck, Idaho. The upscale ski community should provide ample opportunity for her to work as a personal chef, although rival chef Raul is sabotaging her attempts. He seems to have cornered the cuisine market, so Lucy must carve out her own and turns to the town’s Lothario for help. Everyone loves ex-professional baseball player and present-day Little League coach Drew Tolman. All the women are attracted to him, and Lucy is no exception, despite her postdivorce hesitation. But nothing stops her from using Drew to stir up business, while he just wants to stir her. Holm returns to her home state of Idaho with fresh, likable characters who will have readers rooting for the happy ending and relishing every step along the way.
Oh my, what a wonderful read this book was, a real treat. Lucy Gets Her Life Back is a traditional contemporary as they are not often published these days (or I am missing all of them *humpf*). No suspense plot, no wacky characters that kiss goodbye any resemblance of reality and no instant gratuitous sex between the main characters that is totally unbelievable.
Lucy Carpenter is a strong woman who desperately tries to keep her beloved sons’s world together, despite her cheating husband’s two year absence, money problems and her 16 years old son’s occasional journey to marijuana-land. She hopes to accomplish that in Red Duck, Idaho which prides itself on being a small but well visited and beloved holiday hideaway for Hollywood and wannabe starlets.
Drew Tolman is a former professional baseball player turned little league coach now. After years or drinking himself nearly to death he now has been dry for nearly a decade, the only “problem” remaining is his 17 years old daughter. Until her 14th birthday he refused to acknowledge her, then some years ago, after cleaning up, reality hit with a healthy dose of remorse and self-contempt. Now that he has finally found to himself, his daughter doesn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore.
Lucy is an easy to love heroine. Despite being deeply hurt, she remains strong and doesn’t loose faith in life. She struggles and money is tight but she doesn’t get bitter or wallows in self-pity. Drew, however, is more difficult to warm up to. The more the author tells about his story the more I felt challenged by his personality. Usually I avoid “alcoholic” stories like crazy, it’s not a plot that appeals to me, but in this case I can really mark down a big exception. Drew’s past with his daughter leaves to be desired and the story between those two touched me deeply, especially because the reader gets to know his daughter through her journal and later on through her appearance in Red Duck. The interaction between those two was very touching and I was close to seriously needing a tissue.
Lucy’s and Drew’s lovestory develops slowly and is certainly not the main focus of the story. I would rather say that the book is equally divided between both main characters getting their life back in order, and, as a consequence of their growth and development, find together in the end.
And besides SEP I dub Stef Ann Holm as new queen of secondary romances. It was as much touching and entertaining as the main story and a wonderful addition to Lucy’s and Drew’s story.
Lucy Gets Her Life Back is a very slow story and without any remotely action related scenes. What made me give this story a B+ instead of a straight A was actually the lack about Lucy’s professional growth. I read about her struggles and fights to become established as a personal chef and how in the end she found a niche for herself in Red Duck, but I was kind of missing the filling in between. And, on Holm’s website I discovered that the author enjoys to cook herself, and I would have LOVED to read more about the cooking, the experimenting and consequently the sensuality of cooking when connected with a love story.
Anyway, this book was totally splendid and I am looking forward to more treats from this author.
