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Summary
Summary
New York Times bestselling author LaVyrle Spencer, "famous for her heartrending slices of Americana,"* is at her best in this sweet, small-town romance about a country music star discovering the true meaning of love...
Eighteen years ago, Tess McPhail left her tiny hometown of Wintergreen, Missouri for the bright lights of Nashville and never looked back. Now, one of country music's biggest stars, "Mac" is a hardworking woman with little time for a personal life--until her sister insists she come home to help care for their widowed mother.
The welcome Mac receives is less than warm, especially from her former next-door neighbor Kenny Kronek. With a teenage daughter to raise, the handsome divorcé refuses to give Mac the time of day. But when Mac discovers that Kenny's daughter is a promising country talent, she begins mentoring the girl in the music of love--and opening her own hardened heart to a man who makes her soul sing...
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
Make room on bestseller lists for Spencer's latest heart-warmer about unlikely romance, this time between country-western star Tess McPhail and her old schoolmate Kenny Kronek, formally "a dork of the highest magnitude," now an accountant. When her older sisters demand that she spend four weeks in Wintergreen, Mo., helping their mother recover from hip-replacement surgery, Tess blows into town with a chip on her shoulder, expecting to be treated like the star she is. But Kenny, who lives across the alley and faithfully cares for Tess's mom, isn't at all impressed. Tess scornfully dubs him St. Kenny, but she can't help adoring his daughter, Casey, a teenage tomboy with a gravelly singing voice. The girl helps Tess write a song about the difficulties of returning home, while Kenny continues to annoy with his constant good deedsthat is, until Tess at last notes that Kenny is disturbingly attractive. When it's time to return to Nashville, she realizes she loves him. Easily resolving the quandary of how a small-town mortal might fit into a superstar's life, Spencer promotes Kenny to the position of Tess's money manager. In an ending that is pure fantasy, everybody's dreams come trueincluding those of the phenomenally talented and lucky Casey. Light on plot, and lacking a dashing romantic hero (Kenny is nicey-niceness personified), this novel succeeds on Spencer's talent for making the inevitable entertaining. Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The heroine in Spencer's (That Camden Summer, 1995, etc.) newest surefire bestseller discovers that true love and a career do mix. Country-western superstar Tess McPhail travels back to her roots in Wintergreen, Missouri, the town where she was born. She hasn't visited it in 18 years, since she graduated from high school and set out to conquer Nashville's Music Row. Mac, as she is known to her zillions of fans, has come back home to shepherd her mother through a hip-replacement operation. But just how she is going to endure a month in this backwater is more than the elegant (but lonely) Mac can imagine. She loves her mother, but they don't get along; Momma doesn't think a girl has really succeeded in life unless she's married. And then there's the question of how she will endure that seemingly insufferable Kenny Kronek, an accountant no less, who lives across the alley and who had a big crush on her when she was a cute teenager and he was an acne-faced nerd. Little by little, of course, Tess starts to like the quiet life. She befriends Kenny's talented daughter Casey, and she falls in love with ``St. Kenny,'' who is, it turns out, handsome, kind, responsible, and a loving help to her momma. In the end, Tess will get the best of both worlds--life as Mrs. Kronek plus a million-dollar house in Nashville, complete with maid, limos, pool, private planes, a marble bathtub, an unlimited supply of chic low-fat dinners, and a charge account at Tiffany's. This time out, Spencer adopts the heartfelt language of country-western lyrics (``He held her hand over his hurting heart as they drank each other in''), constructing a happy land where everything is as warm and folksy and loving as a group hug. (Literary Guild main selection)
Booklist Review
When small-town girl Tess McPhail followed the pull of Nashville's glittering lights, she placed her dreams on becoming a country singer. Eighteen years later, she is a megastar and is caught in a whirlwind of tours, recording sessions, and financial meetings--a whirlwind that crashes to a stop when her sister demands her help in caring for their mother. Angered at her sister's orders, Tess breezes in to town for a month and crashes straight into the past in the form of Kenny Kronek, the boy-next-door `dork' from high school who has been helping her mother. Sparks and tempers fly whenever the two meet, and Tess' professional interest in Kenny's daughter Casey's singing career causes further problems. As Tess relearns how to relate to her family without hiding behind her celebrity, she begins to appreciate the life she left behind and realizes there is a gaping hole in her current lifestyle--a hole that Kenny may be able to fill. Spencer is a consistent New York Times best-seller, and her latest is a Literary Guild Main Selection. Although not as emotionally wrenching as past novels, expect high demand and start counting how many copies your library will need to meet it. --Melanie Duncan