Thanks to all of you who wrote in 2009 to say how much you loved ONCE IN A BLUE MOON. For those who haven't read it, why not start the new year with a good book (it doesn't have to be mine, I'm an equal opportunity book flogger - but, hey, why not?)
You can also read reviews for ONCE IN A BLUE MOON in the left sidebar.
Set in a fictional coastal town in Northern California, where I grew up, it's the story of two sisters separated at a young age, who reunite in adulthood. There's drama aplenty as well as mishaps, misunderstandings and general mayhem. Not to mention romance, which the sisters find in the unlikeliest of places.
From the Publisher:
Lindsay and Kerrie Ann are sisters who have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls’ mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care.
Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister. The owner of a bookstore in the sleepy California seaside town of Blue Moon Bay, she was lucky enough to have been adopted by a loving couple. Unbeknownst to her, Kerrie Ann has suffered a very different life. Bounced from one foster home to the next, she ran away as a teenager before becoming a drug-addicted single mother. Now, newly sober, Kerrie Ann is fighting to regain custody of the little girl who was taken from her.
Neither sister’s expectations are met when they’re finally reunited. But as the two sisters engage in the fiercest battles of their lives, they are at last drawn together despite their differences, restoring belief in the unshakable bond of family.
Excerpt
In a moment of terrible clarity, Kerrie Ann took in the squalid scene through the cops’ eyes. She saw her daughter—really saw her—for the first time in weeks: how dirty and unkempt she was and how thin she’d gotten, her ribs sticking out of her narrow brown chest like rungs on a ladder. She saw the stain on the seat of her underpants that had come from not wiping herself properly and have no one to do it for her, the crust of dried food around her mouth. When had she last fed Bella?
Kerrie Ann saw the Children’s Services logo on the card and felt herself hurtling back in time. The old nightmare playing itself over, this time with her child. Her thoughts returned to Lindsay. She still couldn’t get over the fact that she had a sister. Even weirder was that she had no memory of her. How was it possible for those years to be a blank slate?
Her counselor at the clinic, Mary Josephson, a recovering heroin addict with twenty years of sobriety, suggested she call Legal Aid. Days later she had a court date. But that was only the first step.
Kerrie Anne soon discovered that good intentions weren’t enough. Her resume, which listed only a string of short-term jobs, was hardly an incentive for anyone to hire her. The part-time job at Toys “R” Us was the best she could do until she got her GED and some kind of occupational training. And without full-time work, how could she afford an “appropriate” place to live? Life was a series of dominoes: Knock one down, and the rest followed suit. If she could just get her legs under her . . .
Which was where her sister came in. Lindsay was the only card she had left.
From Eileen: