Her Native Colors

In this promising first novel, Phoebe Martin and Molly Adams are childhood friends whose paths have diverged. While Phoebe attended law school in California and landed a job at a top-notch firm, had a baby and got divorced, Molly returned to their hometown to teach school and develop her skills as a weaver. A hasty wedding is planned when Molly finds herself pregnant. Flying back to Vermont with four-year-old Andrew, Phoebe almost wishes her dictatorial boss had insisted she work around the clock, as usual. As the friends struggle unsuccessfully toward a new understanding, past differences are aired and both women are forced to question the choices they've made thus far. Irritating parenthetic asides slow the reader down, but to her credit, Hyde delves well beneath the surface of Phoebe's superwoman exterior to present a balanced, sometimes painfully funny, assessment of the price she has been paying all along. (May 2)