April showers of women's fiction

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

This month brings an eclectic collection of compelling women's fiction as diverse in style, settings and stories as April's unpredictable weather.

Rough waters

In the steamy realm of the Florida Keys, suspense and murder vie with volatile relationships in Heather Graham's Hurricane Bay.

The disappearance of her friend Sheila Warren drives Kelsey Cunningham to dig into their connected relationships with friends, lovers and Kelsey's ex, Dane Whitelaw, who has his own reasons for wanting to find Sheila, and ultimately, her killer. Dane is desperate to redeem his past by reconciling his present with Kelsey, but Sheila's ghostly power threatens to tear them apart.

Heather Graham writes with a unique passion for the characters and world of South Florida, where the seemingly lazy lifestyle of margaritas and partying masks complex emotions. Hurricane Bay is true to its name with evocative, stormy characters torn by emotions and events as devastating as the power of the Caribbean windstorm.


Empty nest

Hannah O'Connell struggles as her life is ripped away from her with a surgeon's slice in Kimberly Cates' poignant and powerful The Mother's Day Garden.

Recovering from a hysterectomy, Hannah is entrusted with a mystery baby just when she's struggling to reconcile her own longing for a second child. The lilacs her husband Sam planted for her and their baby Becca were supposed to have been only the beginning of the garden, but when their family didn't grow, neither did the garden. When a man from her past returns, Hannah's own lost baby and the unresolved pain she has carried in secret add to her torment.

Kimberly Cates' writing is so redolent with the human experience of yearning, sacrifice, loss and the joy of recovery that readers will be drawn into this novel until it is read and remains a hauntingly fragrant memory of treasured storytelling.


Booty hunter

For a man hunting for treasure, the lure of old Havana may be intriguing, but the beguilement of a gypsy flamenco dancer proves irresistible in Kristen Kyle's delightful Promise of Gold.

Derek Carlisle, Viscount Graystone, is desperate to get his hands on an old journal that would guide him to a sunken Spanish treasure. Just when he thinks he has the journal, the gypsy dancer demonstrates an additional talent -- for burglary -- and snatches the journal for herself. Rosa Constanza Wright has three doting, aging godfathers to protect and provide for, and she's willing to go to any lengths for them. Even if it takes her to the turbulent seas in search of gold, where Rosa and Derek find an even greater treasure in each other.


Sandy Huseby writes and reviews from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside in northern Minnesota.

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