Friday, March 20, 2009

PW Review

A little mixed, but I'm happy with it, I think.


The Moment Between Nicole Baart.
Tyndale House, $13.99 paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4143-2322-0

Baart (Summer Snow) writes an emotionally intense tale of two sisters. Past and present alternate as the history of their family unfolds in order to explain their present circumstances. The present is largely set in a winery in British Columbia, where one of the sisters, Abigail Bennett, pursues Tyler Kamp, her sister Hailey's boyfriend. The vineyard offers opportunity for beautiful description and resonant imagery as the narrative unspools. Abigail is presented in painful, almost claustrophobic, detail as she deals with the central puzzle of her family and history. But some of the supporting characters, while intriguing, are slightly off-pitch. Hailey's boyfriend Tyler isn't presented fully enough, and winemaker Eli Dixon occasionally becomes more of a symbol than a character with a compelling back story. But Baart has exactly right the members and dynamics of the Bennett family, locked in the manic dance of mental illness. She tells a poignant and gripping story. (May)

2 comments:

  1. Don't let PW get you down - you've got a couple of good blurbs you can get from it! And I'm glad to read it - I've been wondering what the plotline was because all I knew was it was two sisters and there was mental illness...

    I can't wait to read it! Are any of the blurbs you got from Angela Hunt or Francine Rivers going to be on the cover? Or this from PW?

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  2. I've been told PW likes to find at least one negative thing to say in their reviews. "Slightly off-pitch" isn't the end of the world, is it? :) As for cover blurbs, I think the one from Francine will be on the front cover. I don't know what the back cover looks like, but there are more great reviews that will be included somewhere.

    Have a great weekend!

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