Saturday Morning

Prolific writer Snelling offers another round of light inspirational fiction, this time following four women whose lives intersect at J House, a San Francisco women's shelter. Andy struggles to figure out how to love a workaholic husband whose job has transferred him, threatening to take her away from the family homestead and her own profitable lavender farm. Hope runs J House with her husband, Roger, and longs for children of her own. Julia is despondent about a granddaughter who has run away, and Clarice has been ditched by her second husband, who drained their bank accounts and vanished, leaving her to fend for herself in a new city. The women become a prayer support group for each other, witnessing miraculous solutions to each situation. J House becomes the concern that unites them all when it is threatened by hostile takeover from developers and by reclamation from the city for not meeting earthquake codes. Snelling weaves the four stories into one compelling whole, set against the somewhat sanitized backdrop of the shelter. The characters fail to be distinct, each speaking with largely the same voice, but no doubt Snelling's loyal fan base will welcome these women as friends. (Sept. 20)