Shea's bestselling Hoopi Shoopi Donna
and Lily of the Valley
established her as a chronicler of Polish-American life with a wholesome and heartwarming, if sometimes treacly, style. Now she focuses on Robyn Panek, who returns to the Massachusetts farm where she spent childhood summers. Her Uncle Pal, too old and sickly to tend to the farm, asks her to run the pony ring for one last summer before he sells the property. Robyn obliges, and finds herself haunted by memories of betrayal. During her last summer on the farm, 18-year-old Robyn, readying for college in the fall, befriended boarder Lucy Dragon, a disturbed teenager sent by her parents to reap the psychological benefits of living in a rural setting. While Lucy and Robyn became fast friends, roaming the farm and its environs with Robyn's boyfriend, Frankie, the summer ended in heartbreak: a neighbor's baby vanished and Robyn realized that neither Lucy nor Frankie were what they seemed. Now, 22 years later, both Lucy and Frankie resurface to make amends. While die-hard fans will appreciate the folksy touches that capture the charm of a smalltown community stuck in a time warp—Frankie works at the Day n' Night Dairy; a set of signs outside Pal's farm advertise "Clover Honey, Brown Eggs... Perfectly Round Rocks, Lucky Horseshoes (Used), Your Name in Cement"—Shea's narrative meanders between the present and the past, with the central surprise hinted at so heavily that it is robbed of suspense by the time it is revealed. Without the anchor of a compelling plot, this novel feels like its title—a retread of themes explored better in the author's previous books. (July 10)
Forecast:Shea's reputation will drive sales of her latest, as will national advertising and an eight-city author tour, but the book will do nothing to build her readership base.
