Popular Fiction Now & Then By Jacqueline Sheehan Avon Harper Collins, 386 pages, $13.99 A charming tale about Anna O’Shea; a lawyer who has failed at marriage and family relationships, and her 16-year-old nephew, Joseph who find themselves thrown more than one-hundred years back in time. The story begins in present day, when Anna returns from an exhausting visit touring Europe and learns that her brother, Joseph’s father has been critically injured and is hospitalized. Without any sleep or time to pack, she rushes to her brother’s bedside only to be asked to drive another several hours to release Joseph from police custody. Joseph has a rocky relationship with his father, whose own father was physically abusive, and as a young teen who lost his mother has his struggles with growing up. Getting into trouble is not something Joseph wants to do, but he needs more from his father than he gets and feels lost and alone. Anna rescues her nephew from the police station and they arrive back at her apartment where they spend the night before making the long trip back to the hospital. That is where Now & Then changes course. These two characters, in the middle of the night, find themselves being spit out of the ocean on the beaches of Ireland in the year 1844. Anna and Joseph washed ashore nearly eighty miles from each other, both rescued by very different families and neither having much memory of their previous life, though they do remember who they are and that they don’t belong in 1844. The story continues with the reader going back and forth between Anna’s life with a family of Irish smugglers during an English occupation and Joseph’s experiences living with an English lord who offers the teen all the luxury wealth can offer. The author included the Irish Wolfhounds as part of this tale; however they play a very small role in the tale until the last couple of chapters. Now & Then would have been better received by the reader if the author had given a bit more clues as to how and why the main characters traveled back in time and to another country. This act happens early in the story and very suddenly. There is no effort by the author to share hints about how these two people were pulled into an entirely different storyline, until around Chapter 30. Though I love a good mystery, unfortunately the story wasn’t written as that genre, so the reader finds themselves a little bored and anxious for the characters to make progress in their quest to find each other and ultimately return home. Reviewed by Doreen Erhardt
20 S F B R Oct 09
Benny & Shrimp By Katarina Mazetti Penguin, 224 pages, $14.00 An atypical love story, Benny and Shrimp serves as a graphic illustration of the differences between romantic and practical love. Benny and Desiree (Shrimp) started their relationship in less than auspicious of circumstances, Shrimp at the grave of her dearly departed husband and Benny paying homage to his deceased parents. Week after week, they spy each other over grass and gravestones, initially openly disparaging of the other. Benny notes to himself, “And then she’s there. Faded, like some old color photo that’s been on display for years.” However it’s not long before contempt turns to interest and Benny and Shrimp find themselves embroiled in a torrid love affair. Both revel in the open-hearted, freeing passion they share. Shrimp thinks to herself, “He hadn’t just turned my head, he’d rotated it so many times that it came off and I had to hold it on a string like a balloon.” Yet relationships are built on more than what happens in the bedroom and as polar opposites, this couple seems doomed to fail. Benny, a stereotypical dairy farmer, is up at dawn with the cows, working hard all day, and is in bed by sundown. According to Benny’s traditional upbringing, a woman serves as a helpmate, in the house and out. Shrimp is anything but his ideal. A widowed librarian, Shrimp is ready to play, to go to the theater and plays, read novels, have children. Even their homes further illustrate their core differences. She lives an organized life in her modern, austere apartment, while he lives in an over-stuffed, chaotic, conservative farmhouse. Eventually, as reality intrudes, the affair begins to unravel like a badly knit sweater. Despite the apparent hopelessness of the relationship, I found myself rooting for this couple. I wondered if somehow, despite all indications to the contrary, would they manage to cross the great divide from romance to real love? Reviewed by Lanine Bradley How Perfect is That By Sarah Bird Pocket Books, 301 pages, $15.00 Divorced, desperate, and financially destroyed, Blythe Young is quickly running out of options. Though she was once the trophy wife of Henry “Trey” BiggsDix the III, an ironclad pre-nup has left the Austin socialite with few options and even fewer friends. Pulling herself up by
SBR REVIEWER SPOTLIGHT
Joseph Arellano Joseph Arellano is a newer member of the Sacramento Book Review team. He grew up not far from Sacramento in Stockton, where he received his B.A. in Communication Arts from the University of the Pacific (UOP). Joseph quit the Pacific debate team in order to thoroughly enjoy himself spinning records for KUOP-FM. He produced the weekly rock album reviews for the radio station and for the campus paper, The Pacifican. Joseph moved to Los Angeles for graduate school and somehow never learned to dislike the area (Southern California Book Review, anyone)? After completing law school, he pretty much decided that he wanted to do anything but boring legal work, and accepted an interesting job with a state agency. He quickly became entrenched in state service and has worked as a public servant including teaching in the Criminal Justice Department at Sacramento State - for many, many moons. Joseph also expresses himself via his blog on which he focuses on books (yes), music (naturally), beer, running, health news, cats and other essentials. He plans to eventually start a new one, with just book and music news and reviews, which will be located at http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com. He’s also begun to try his hand at some pre-publication editing work for a technical publisher. He currently lives in Elk Grove with his wife Ruta and Norwegian Forest Cat, Munchy. He spends his time being confused about exactly what books he’s supposed to be reviewing, which tends to frustrate Heidi to no end. What is it Heidi says about supervising the team of reviewers? Oh, yeah: “It’s like herding cats!” her Christian Louboutins, Blythe squares her shoulders and plunges back into the fire, reopening Wicked Xcess, an exclusive catering company. With an army of creditors on her tail, including the big Kahuna himself, the IRS, Blythe has no choice but to hide out until the heat dies down. After drugging her clients and even worse, passing off club store appetizers as haute cuisine, Blythe finally hits bottom and has no choice but to turn to an old friend, Millie Ott. Millie is Blythe’s polar opposite, an almost minister still living in a housing co-op, Seneca House, serving others to the detriment of her own needs. Eschewing most modern conveniences including a vehicle, Millie serves the homeless twice daily, using a modified bicycle. Millie opens her arms wide and welcomes Blythe back into the fold. Despite Blythe’s obvious character defects, including but not limited to loose morals, addictive behavior, lack of ethics, inherent self-centeredness and general inhumanity, she’s an incredibly likeable character. Almost against my better judgment, this reader finds myself rooting for her, praying she grows emotionally and finally succeeds at relationships, at life, at something. Less enjoyable were the 80s sitcom hijinks. All must band together to save Seneca House, not with a fashion show but a spa event in which only Blythe can navigate and
coach the ingenuous housemates through the minefield of upper-class Texan trophy wives. Through their efforts everyone grows a new appreciation for Blythe and the society wives emerge from the experience humbled and renewed. How Perfect is That is smartly written, with tongue-in-cheek irreverent irony. As a longtime Texas native, author Sarah Bird is well positioned to provide a firsthand anthropologic account of Austin high society. In summary, a worthwhile read. Reviewed by Lanine Bradley
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