From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling romance author Delinsky ( Suddenly ) again proves herself an excellent storyteller in her hardcover debut, a thoroughly enjoyable weeper in which passion and family bonds are both victorious. Wealthy, widowed Philadelphia socialite Ginny St. Clair has always been cool and distant to her three daughters. The summer of her 70th birthday, she abruptly invites all of her offspring to help her settle into a mansion on the rocky Maine coast. Annette, the suffocatingly good mother of five; hard-edged Caroline, a hotshot Chicago lawyer; and Leah, the twice-divorced youngest sibling, arrive at the estate, each aghast to find the others--but their mother, by design, is not there. Though the three grimly assume battle positions, enforced proximity fosters grudging respect and finally love. For Leah, there's also a scalding affair with groundskeeper Jesse Cray, a wild echo of a romance that had flared half a century earlier between a gardener and the mistress of the house. Predictably, that woman was Ginny, who chose duty over love. Readers will enjoy the tart barbs flung by siblings whose animosities are well rendered, as well as the sparks that fly between Jesse and Leah. Clinically neat solutions to various problems and a few whacking credibility lapses hardly dent the novel's appeal. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; audio to HarperAudio; author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Delinsky, a popular and prolific author of Harlequin romances, makes an impressive hardcover debut with this novel. Three sisters, longtime rivals, are reunited by the mother from whom all are estranged. Focusing on each woman in turn, Delinsky skillfully brings out the pain, insecurity, and hope each harbors. Although there are men in their lives, the real focus is on the sisters, their relationships with one another and their mother, and a summer retreat that brings self-discovery and resolution to unresolved conflicts. Delinsky develops her characters well and creates a strong sense of place with beautiful, evocative descriptions of the landscapes. This bittersweet story should be a popular addition to modern fiction collections.Barbara E. Kemp, Library Consultant, Reston, Va.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
When Virginia St. Clair was a young married woman, she fell in love with the gardener of her vacation house in Maine. At the end of the summer, she chose duty to her husband over love and emotionally estranged herself from everyone who entered her life. Her three daughters, born after that summer, suffered the most. Now, at 70, Virginia decides to correct her mistakes. She purchases her former vacation home in Maine and invites her daughters to join her there. Caroline leaves her law practice, Annette's family encourage her to make the trip, and Leah abandons the Washington social scene. When the three women arrive, they find out Virginia will be a few days late, and they must face their problems with each other and with their personal lives. The revelation of their emotionless mother's passionate past rocks the foundations of the sisters' beliefs about their family and enables them to heal the emotional scars of childhood and face the future with the men they love. Melanie Duncan
From Kirkus Reviews
Delinsky's first hardcover squeezes a novel out of short-story material about three sisters whose manipulative mother stages an unorthodox family reunion. When she was 27, Ginny St. Clair had an affair with Will Cray, the gardener at Star's End, the home she and her husband rented one summer in Maine. Now 70, she has purchased Star's End and summons her three daughters, who have little to do with one another, to spend two weeks at the house--without telling them that she won't be there. Caroline, obsessive about her work as a lawyer, is romantically linked with Ben Hammer, an artist who maintains a balanced view of his life. Annette, obsessive about her role as wife and mother (and basically a retread of a character in last year's Suddenly), is married to Jean-Paul Maxime, a neurosurgeon who maintains a balanced view of his life. (Catching the offensive pattern here?) Finally there is Leah, a twice-divorced Washington, DC, socialite, with an insignificant life and no man at all. This means that she is free to meet Will's son Jesse Cray, the current gardener at Star's End, and reenact her mother's romance of decades ago, this time with the requisite happy ending. Delinsky, who has offered adequate portrayals of small-town New Englanders in previous works, disappoints even in this respect. Plain old locals- -those who are not transplants from major cities, or world travelers (like Jesse), or artists who sell ``to kings...and movie stars''--are little more than vaudeville-style clowns here. As the story putters along, the sisters, despite years of mutual indifference, become great friends. Meanwhile, dipping into Ginny's old romance, the story sugarcoats the self-centeredness she displays up through her own melodramatic return to Star's End. Bypass this and dig out one of Delinksy's old paperbacks. (First printing of 100,000; Book-of-the-Month Club selection; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
A mother's legacy of heartbreak, scandal and enduring love…
When seventy-year-old Ginny invites her three daughters to join her for two weeks at Star's End, her new estate on the Maine coast, each accepts reluctantly, since Ginny was always more dutiful than loving. All three have found ways to rebel against their emotionally impoverished childhoods. Caroline, forty, is a successful lawyer driven to put a demanding career ahead of her personal life. Annette, thirty-seven, lavishes more attention on her husband and five children than they need or want. And twice-married, twice-divorced Leah, thirty-four, now fills her life with empty socializing. Together at Star's End, as they await Ginny's arrival, they gradually discover the scandalous secret behind her stony facade -- and begin to understand the deepest desires of their own hearts.
Download Description
Caroline, Annette, and Leah St. Clair have spent their lives trying to escape the legacy of their wealthy, social-climbing mother, Virginia. Then, on the eve of her seventieth birthday, Virginia gives something to her daughters after a lifetime of taking...Caroline, Annette and Leah St. Clair have spent their lives trying to escape the legacy of their wealthy, social-climbing mother, Virginia, a woman who had little time -- and even less feeling -- for her daughters. Though the sisters now consider themselves happy, each has lost a certain part of herself. Then, on the eve of her seventieth birthday, Virginia asks her daughters to help her get settled into her magnificient new estate on the peaceful, rocky coast of Maine. Though their first reaction is to turn her down, each of the sisters ultimately decides to go...to give Virginia what she asks for, perhaps for the last. But it is Virginia who gives to her daughters. For amid the glorious beauty of a New England summer, the sisters find answers to question that have troubled them fo years, insights into the men in their lives, and new truths that will stay with them forever. For My Daughter is an eloquent and heartfelt protrait rich with passion, joy fulfillment, and, most of all, love, as four women discover not only one another, but themselves as well.
About the Author
Barbara Delinsky was a sociologist and photographer before she began to write. A lifelong New Englander, she and her husband have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and a cat. There are more than thirty million copies of her books in print.
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