After the Rain

A young woman with a painful secret from childhood finds love, healing, and personal fulfillment as Thomas Edison’s gardener in Lorenzini’s bittersweet novel. In 1888, Belle Carson, 25, finds her niche when she is hired as gardener for the Edisons’ winter estate in Fort Myers, Fla. Orphaned as an infant and adopted by a couple in town, Belle was tormented for years by her adoptive brother, Julius. She ran away at age 14 to live with a kindly widower and work in his store. Now, Belle is content—she lives alone in a cottage on the Edison estate near her friend, Abigail, and starts a women’s club and a romance with Boone, whose brother’s tragic death left him emotionally broken and physically disabled. The action heats up when Julius tracks her down, and one night, in a drunken rage, he breaks into her cottage and attacks her. No longer a child, Belle fights back. There are serious repercussions from the violence, which Belle and Boone confront together, as they learn to trust one another. Well-drawn characters and descriptions of Edison’s laboratory, the estate, and a mysterious listening device that allows Belle to eavesdrop on private conversations help to vivify this particular time period. This is a sure bet for readers drawn to small-town, historical settings.[em] (BookLife) [/em]