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Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION SPE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Bestselling author LaVyrle Spencer explores the fragile bonds that exist between family members, the strength it takes to hold them together, and the true meaning of unconditional love in this powerful New York Times bestseller Principal Tom Gardner comes face-to-face with a past indiscretion when a new student transfers to his school: Kent Arens. Tom only has to look at him to see that this teenager is the son he never knew he had, the result of a one-night stand on the eve of Tom's wedding years before. Though impressed with the intelligent, athletic, and polite young man, Tom is devastated by the effect of Kent's presence on his family. To Tom's wife, Claire, Kent is the symbol of an act of betrayal so wrenching she cannot forgive her husband. To their daughter, Chelsea, he is the boy she begins to fall for -until she learns the truth. And to their son, Robby, he is a rival in the classroom and on the football field -and the force driving his parents apart. As the Gardners careen toward disaster, they test the foundation of trust and respect that their family was built on -and learn that love leaves no choice but forgiveness
Author Notes
LaVyrle Spencer was born in Browerville, Minnesota on July 17, 1943. While working as a teacher's aide at Osseo Junior High School, she started writing her first novel, The Fulfillment, which was published in 1979. She has written more than a dozen novels that have hit the New York Times bestseller list, and many of her works have been condensed for Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping. She has won five Romance Writers of America RITA Awards for her novels The Endearment, Hummingbird, Twice Loved, The Gamble, and Morning Glory. In 1988, she was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Many of her novels have been made into television movies including The Fulfillment, Home Song, and Family Blessings and the major motion picture Morning Glory. She retired from writing in 1997.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A seemingly Norman Rockwell-like family is at the center of Spencer's (Family Blessings) latest novel, and, as usual, Spencer reveals the hard truths that lie beneath the bright exterior. On the first day of school, high-school principal Tom Gardner thinks his biggest problem is finding the shipment of textbooks for his wife Claire's English class; but the most difficult ordeal of his life is about to begin. Tom's real troubles start when he meets a new student, Kent Arens, who turns out to be smart, well-mannered, a star athlete-and the illegitimate son Tom never knew he had, conceived during a one-night stand 18 years ago, just before Tom married Claire. Tom swings between fear that Claire will find out about Kent and pride in his newfound son, but when the boy, unaware of his lineage, starts courting Tom's 16-year-old daughter, Chelsea, Tom is forced to reveal his secret. Claire, bitter and angry, asks Tom to move out of their home. Robby, their son, resents his new brother and takes out his anger on Kent on the football field. Chelsea, meanwhile, starts running with the wrong crowd. But while Tom and Claire grow farther apart, the three siblings decide to become friends. Together, they reunite Tom and Claire, restoring family harmony. While the course of events is predictable, the characters are warmly drawn and their dilemmas realistic, and Spencer knows how to tug at readers' hearstrings. Chalk up another likely bestseller, the 11th in 11 years for this consistently commercial author. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection; film rights to CBS-TV. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
There's not a morally ambiguous syllable in bestselling Spencer's (Family Blessings, 1994, etc.) newest drama. If you don't follow the rules, you don't get to live happily ever after, plain and simple. Tom Gardner is a perfect hero in a perfect marriage. He's the principal of a high school outside St. Paul, Minn. He cares about his students: He greets them every morning, he laughs with them in the cafeteria, he forges important relationships. His wife, Claire, teaches honors English. They've been married 18 years; they have two wonderful children, Robby and Chelsea. Claire makes time to cook; Tom is man enough to cry when he has to; they hug; they have worked ``diligently'' at achieving mutual sexual satisfaction. Their life has rules and structures that have made it successful; the family goes to church together. Then into their Twin Cities Eden, that devilish Spencer introduces single parent Monica Arens, just arrived from Austin to register her son, Kent, at Tom's school. Monica, Tom recalls, was the pizza delivery girl with whom he had a one-night stand on the eve of his marriage. And Kent, a tall and perfect boy, has a cowlick just like Tom's. A single indiscretion threatens to destroy everything the Gardner family holds dear. Claire, pregnant before her wedding, has always been insecure about Tom's love. Furious at the news of his illegitimate son, she demands a separation. These sorts of problems, Tom tells Robby, are the way our characters grow. Spencer, aiming to educate everybody, gives us all a good dose of growth opportunity, and we're all better for it. The real American dream, Monica concludes, is a father and mother raising their kids together. At the end of our morally battered millennium, she hopes the Gardners won't blow it. Old-fashioned ladies' magazine fare, with Spencer's usual warmth and clear-headedness. Like hot chocolate in the dark night of the soul. (Film rights to CBS-TV; Literary Guild main selection) )
Booklist Review
The Longfellow poem that Spencer uses for the title of her new melodrama urges "my heart [to] stay at home." But high-school principal Tom Gardner almost loses home and family because of a long-ago betrayal. When transfer student Kent Arens enrolls at Tom's suburban St. Paul school, Tom realizes that Kent's mother, Monica, is the college acquaintance he took to bed the night of his bachelor party in a brief rebellion against having to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Claire; Kent is the son the principal didn't know he had. Tom delays telling English teacher Claire and children Robby, a senior, and Chelsea, a junior, this secret, until Kent and Chelsea appear to be attracted to one another. There's a hothouse quality to this confrontation: the only major characters who don't spend their time at the high school are Monica, a 3M engineer, and Tom's wise-old-man father; Kent and Robby are rival candidates for homecoming king and bump shoulders on the football team; and Kent is a student in Claire's honors English class. All the characters are such decent folk that it's clear from the start their wounds will heal and they'll find ways to forgive one another. Spencer's latest is as simple but satisfying as the made-for-TV movie it may well become. A main selection of both the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. (Reviewed December 15, 1994)039914014XMary Carroll
