The In-Between Hour-Barbara Claypole White

The In-Between Hour Barbara Claypole White Mira, Dec 31 2013, $14.95 ISBN 9780778314752 In his apartment on Central Park West, bestselling author Will Shepard grieves the accidental death of his beloved son Freddie. Unable to write or sleep, Will also poorly deals with his father Jacob who keeps asking him to have Freddie call him as the octogenarian’s Alzheimer has wiped out the memory of his grandson’s death. Will constantly lies to his dad that Freddie will call him soon. After several weeks in Orange County, California, veterinarian Hannah Linden comes home to Saponi Mountain in North Carolina still seeing her screaming adult child Galen tied to a gurney. Hannah feels hopeless as her son wants to commit suicide. When the Hawk’s Ridge Retirement Community informs Will they plan to toss out Jacob due to his illness compounded by alcoholism, Will comes home to North Carolina where his dad immediately demands to see Freddie. While renting a cabin that he shares with his father from Hannah, Will and the vet forge a friendship out of the tsuris that engulfs both of them. Soon they fall in love, but to Will and Hannah family needs come before their shared desire yet each knows they can rely on the other for needed emotional support. The fully developed extended cast makes this tale into a powerful family drama that focuses on the impact of the illnesses on loving caretakers; as readers will feel the immense pressure on the lead pair to cope emotionally with what to do for their ailing beloved relatives. Although the romance goes as expected, readers will appreciate the relationship between Will and Hannah with each understanding the demons they both face when it comes to doing right by his dad and her son. Harriet Klausner