REUNION
Therese Fowler
Ballantine Books
Fiction
ISBN: 9780345499707
Blue Reynolds is now a wealthy, famous celebrity talk show host, but things were different for her when she was a very young woman. Blue's upbringing had been catch-as-catch-can with her hippie-dippy single mom and sister. It was all about survival, and so she was particularly happy when her high school English teacher found her a job in his wife's office. There, Blue had fallen for the teacher and his wife's son, Mitch. Mitch had been slightly older, divorced and with a little boy.
Mitch and Blue were a couple for a brief and ecstatic period in the girl's life. But when Mitch broke off the relationship, Blue was crushed. She moved in with a friend, and attempted to lose herself in the free love and drugs available in their household. Unfortunately, Blue found herself pregnant from a casual encounter with someone she didn't care about and completely without prospects. Believing her newborn son would have a better home with a wealthy couple, Blue let him be adopted by them.
Fast forward to Blue today. As she interviews a pregnant teen on her program, Blue breaks down crying, much to the consternation of her avid public. Blue has secretly hired a private detective who is searching for the midwife who delivered her son and had also functioned as the middleman in the adoption process. Meanwhile, she tries to tell herself she has a good life. After all, she is worth millions, enjoys her work and lives in a fabulous apartment. Her very good friend is her assistant. Although she has to worry about being in the public eye (and fears terribly any scandal that could arise if word got out about her child) and has drifted away from the closeness she once enjoyed with her sister, and has yet to find a romantic partner she wants to stay with forever, the fact is Blue has done extremely well for herself. Her life couldn't get much better. Or could it?
The talk show is filming for a week in Key West, so Blue and her crew jet off. Blue had no idea how much she would love the area, and she manages to wander around incognito for a while before coming across a house that beckons to her. Impetuously, she almost immediately buys the place, which is homey rather than grand. Purchasing a new home is just the first step in a series of changes that Key West will make in Blue's life. By coincidence or the maneuvering of fate, Mitch's parents live nearby, so he visits them. Mitch brings along his new girlfriend, a woman he feels he has a future with, and plans to shoot a documentary series with his son, Julian, who is now an esteemed photographer. When Blue offers to help Mitch and Julian with the production, the resulting working relationships are fraught with emotions --- and delightfully unexpected plot twists.
I have to say up front that if someone had briefly described this book to me --- famous celebrity talk show host, secrets, old flame, etc. --- I'd be expecting a glib, shallow, formulaic story that would feel like a tired retread. Which makes it all the sweeter to be able to say: I loved this book! Following the success of her debut novel, SOUVENIR, Therese Fowler infuses her characters with life, layering them until they could step off the page. She handles the search for Blue's son with a subtle hand, penning the perfect concluding chapter to that thread. Plot points that readers may predict far in advance are totally different from expected (and much better for it). Beautifully written and full of heart, REUNION is a satisfying tale perfect for a weekend escape from real life.
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2010, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
