Judith’s review of When Lightning Strikes by Brenda Novak
Welcome to Whiskey Creek- Heart of the Gold Country! Simon O’Neal’s causing trouble again. And it’s up to Gail DeMarco to stop him. Gail DeMarco left Whiskey Creek, California, to make a name for herself in Los Angeles. Her PR firm has accumulated a roster of A-list clients, including the biggest box office hit of all- sexy and unpredictable Simon O’Neal. But Simon, who’s just been through a turbulent divorce, is so busy self-destructing he won’t listen to anything she says. She drops him from her list-and he retaliates by taking the rest of her clients with him. Desperate to save her company, Gail has to humble herself by making a deal with Simon. The one thing he wants is custody of his son, but that’s going to require a whole new image. He needs to marry some squeaky-clean girl who’ll drag him off to some small, obscure place like Whiskey Creek…. Gail’s the only one he can trust. She agrees to become his wife-reluctantly. But she isn’t reluctant because he’s too hard to like. It’s because he’s too hard not to love!
She was well and truly away from Whiskey Creek, or so she thought. A little town filled with people she loved but who smothered her with their insistent caring and overwhelming need to know everything about everyone. She was successful and living among the beautiful people, yet her heart was cold and her love life sterile. She was certain of her place in the scheme of things until an arrogant and overbearing, out-of-control actor upended her world and necessitated a return to her home town in order to give her husband-in-name-only a chance at a new and stable life in order to reclaim his son.
This is a complicated story in some ways, examining the inner workings of the thoughts and feelings of two people, both of whom need a change in their lives and who must begin to recognize the value within themselves and each other as well as the values of that small, close-knit community that nurtured Gail during her early years. It is in Whiskey Creek that Simon reclaims his love of creating things, of learning the true nature of love, of recognizing inner beauty as well as external sex appeal. Simon must fight the demons of his budding alcoholism, his desire for fame and fortune, his love of the adoration of the crowd. Gail must deal with the fact that her relationship with Simon of short duration, that regardless of her coming to love him, he will be out of her life eventually, possibly sooner rather than later. There is a growing tension that continues to build throughout the novel so that it is left to the reader to wonder how these two main characters can every find their way toward one another.
As always, Ms Novak writes a story that is engaging and well worth the time and effort to read. It is a love story at its core but to a greater extent this is a story about the healing that kindness and a strong sense of community can bring into hearts and souls that are torn by deep pain and a sense of failure, deep loss and the knowledge that one has lost the company of those most loved. Simon may have been at the peak of his movie career but he was locked in the doldrums of loss and failure at his deepest personal level. Whiskey Creek and Gail gave him back his life. It is how they did this that form the core of this story.
I love novels like this that lift up the warmth and spirit of giving found in communities like Whiskey Creek. It is a reassuring kind of story, one that helps the reader to encounter the hopes and dreams that make the human spirit proud and which give a person new awareness of one’s intrinsic value. I am delighted to have read this novel and highly recommend it as another fine example of very good writing from an author with a proven track record for very good romance fiction. Don’t miss it.
I give it a rating of 4 out of 5
This book is available from MIRA. You can buy it
here or
here in e-format.
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It sounds pretty good! I like that the plot is a bit complicated but that you know that going in.
Also, the characters sound very likable!
Thanks for this review.