Shore Lights FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
In more than 40 books over a 20-year career, Barbara Bretton has captured hearts with her appealing blend of poignant realism and romantic dreams, and Shore Lights continues this winning tradition. As a child, Maddy Bainbridge blamed her mom for her parents' divorce. Once grown, Maddy left their small town on the Jersey Shore to make a new home for herself -- far, far away. Now, jobless after the crash of her dot-com career in Seattle and wounded by a recent breakup, Maddy is desperate to offer her young daughter stability and family -- even if it means returning home to work at her mother's upscale bed-and-breakfast. When Maddy meets single dad Aidan O'Malley in a bidding war over an antique samovar on an online auction site, the attraction is immediate. Unfortunately, while Maddy needs this "enchanted lamp" to brighten her daughter's Christmas, Aidan's teenage daughter wants it to replace something her ailing great grandmother treasured long ago. The ensuing dispute results in a delightfully romantic homecoming. Sue Stone
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Barbara Bretton shines a light into the hearts of mothers and daughters... and delivers her most compelling novel to date.
While Maddy Bainbridge didn't want to go back home to the Jersey shore, her mother's invitation came at a time when Maddy had few choices. But her effort to give her own little girl her heart's desire may just give Maddy a chance of finding her own.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Bretton's newest contemporary romance (after A Soft Place to Fall) is an engrossing tale of hope, promise, heartache and misplaced dreams. Maddy Bainbridge and her headstrong mother, Rose, have never gotten along, but when Maddy's Seattle-based dot-com crashes and her husband divorces her, she has no choice but to return home to Paradise Point, N.J., with her four-year-old daughter Hannah. It's three weeks before Christmas, and Maddy is determined to make a go of it with her mom while attempting to put a little happiness back in her daughter's life by giving her an Aladdin-style `magic lamp' (actually a teapot) she's found on the Internet. The only problem is that someone is aggressively trying to outbid her. Her adversary, she soon learns, is ex-firefighter Aidan O'Malley, owner of O'Malley's Bar and Grill across town. He's trying to win the teapot for his daughter, Kelly, who believes it to be the one that graced the walls of O'Malley's 50 years earlier. When Maddy scores the winning bid, the sale becomes the catalyst that brings generations of families together, suggesting the teapot may have magic powers after all. While this Christmas tale may seem out of place among the summer season's beach offerings, its uplifting message and smooth storytelling make it a pleasant read any time of year. (May 6) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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