Something Good-Fiona Gibson

Something Good
Fiona Gibson
Red Dress Ink, Apr 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 9780373895571

Jane Deakin is stunned when she sees her beloved husband Max cheating. Despondent as she never saw it coming, Jane moves out taking their five years old daughter Hannah with her.

A decade later, Jane and Max remain separated but legally married. She works in a childcare center but hopes to make a living with her stained glass hobby. Hannah wants to be an actress and has a crush on workshop peer Ollie. Max is seeing Veronica, a single mother with two teenage children, Zoe and Dylan. Jane, accompanied by her mom, daughter and Zoe, travels to Scotland to attend a stained glass workshop where Jane finally finds her groove.

The key to this well written extended family drama is the strong cast; everyone that matters seems real especially with how they interrelate with one another. For instance, Jane is a well behaved teen until Zoe mentors her on Minor Mutiny 101 while Zoe and Dylan have sibling rivalries; and Dylan and Jane are attracted to one another. Jane is terrific as the center holding the story line together even as she is falling in love with Conor the Scot, but it is the support characters who make SOMETHING GOOD out of Fiona Gibson’s fine contemporary romance.

Harriet Klausner