Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Beneath the Night Tree-Nicole Bart

Beneath the Night Tree
Nicole Bart
Tyndale, Feb 1 2011, $12.99
ISBN: 9781414323237

Six years ago Patrick “Parker” Holt left his girlfriend Julia DeSmit in a parking lot at their college. Stunned by his desertion, Julia raises their son Daniel without him while also serving as mom to her ten years old half-brother Simon who was abandoned by his biological mother. Julia and the two young boys live with their grandma.

Julia works at a grocer while also taking night classes to obtain an associate degree. She has a caring boyfriend Michael Vermeer who is nice to her and her family and wants her and the boys to move with him to Iowa City. Parker sends her an email wanting back in her life and wondering if he sired a child with her. She knows she needs to let him meet his son, but has doubts about giving him a second chance.

This is a heartwarming inspirational family drama with a strong cast as each of the unorthodox DeSmit household and the two men in Julia’s life have different personalities and fears. Rejection and redemption are the common threads that run though the well written story line, but Julia holds the plot together as she must choose between the two adult males who want her or neither of them, but it is observing her two “sons” with each that helps her select. This is a terrific character study that defines family as a team of loved ones.

Harriet Klausner

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