Emotional crises abound in Samuel's second novel (after No Place Like Home), set in the deceptively peaceful hills around Taos, N.Mex. Luna McGraw, who still wears her AA pin, lost custody of her daughter, Joy, eight years ago; at 15, Joy is about to come live with her again, and Luna is nervously trying to quit smoking, get her life in order and be an upstanding parent—or at least look like one. Thomas Coyote, Luna's new love interest, is still reeling from his former wife's affair with his own brother. Joy is fascinated by her mother's free-spirited life and the budding relationship with Thomas, but she misses her stepmother and stepsiblings. She's also furious with her philandering father, who has cheated on both of his wives. Luna's mother, Kitty, though now happily married to a loving millionaire, is still haunted by memories of Luna's father, who walked out on the family decades ago. Luna's sister, Elaine, has a poor self-image and a weight problem. Even Joy's new friend, Maggie, is struggling with her own mother's severe depression and her grief over her father's accidental death. Samuel is adept at keeping the tone light in spite of this unrelieved angst, though some may still find the novel a bit overwrought. Her use of Maggie's diary entries to tie up the story's loose ends also strikes an amateurish chord. Yet the humorously self-effacing characters and sensitive exploration of family relationships ensure the book's appeal to readers of women's fiction. Agent, Meg Ruley. (Feb.)
