One Week in December
Holly Chamberlin
Kensington, Oct 2009, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758214058
Becca Rowan feels all alone, but her loneliness is compounded whenever she sees her sixteen year old niece, Rain. She knows she made a deal with her older brother David and his wife Naomi to raise Rain, but now she wants to tell her biological daughter the truth. Still Becca also knows if she does she will destroy her family as she acquiesced as a teen giving birth that her sibling and his spouse would raise her daughter as their own and telling her the truth when Rain turned twenty-one.
During the annual family Christmas gathering, she plans to tell Rain the truth and to bring her daughter home. When she does, all hell breaks out. She feels remorseful wondering how selfish she was to break her promise while her brother and his wife are irate and feeling betrayed and Rain is upset and confused. Only the next door neighbor Alex provides her some comfort and advice as Becca tries to repair the disaster she caused.
This is an engaging family drama although the key catalyst in causing the trauma Becca comes across extremely selfish and shallow rather than emotionally disturbed. The rest of the Rowan brood are developed to the point of being understood by readers in the way they react to Becca. Interesting and well written, fans will enjoy this contemporary tale but feel disappointed that Becca’s mental anguish was not developed into crippling phobic loneliness way beyond her self-centered need.
Harriet Klausner
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