Carrie Weaver, The Road to Echo Point Review

Overall Rating

The Road to Echo Point
Carrie Weaver
Harlequin SuperRomance, Dec 2003, $5.25, 299 pp.
ISBN: 0373711735

Insurance claims manager Vi Davis tries to settle an auto claim with Bob Johnson when he points his shot gun at her. Vi drives too fast in her haste to fleeand hits a dog. A big man comes out of the nearby brush yelling at her. At wits end, she flees again this time the scene of the accident. Not long afterward, Vi is in front of Judge Tanner in the Echo Point, Arizona courtroom, who rules she must perform community service. She will replace the canine she injured as the companion to Alzheimer's victim Daisy Smith for the next six weeks.

Vi's first encounter with Alzheimer's leaves her shaken and wondering what whether she needs a tetanus shot. However, soon Vi falls in love with her elderly companion and her adult son Ian, who was that big guy with the dog she hit. Now she wants to remain with him forever, but that means giving up on her chance at a promotion that has been her objective for a long time.

The romance takes a back seat to the deep look at how crippling to the victim and her loved ones Alzheimer's is. Daisy is becoming dangerous to herself, her canine, and her nurturing son to the point that Ian is past the threshold of her needing professional caretaking. The angst caused by whether Vi leaves or not seems shallow compared to Ian's dilemma of a nursing home or his home for his beloved mother. Anyone who has had to face this gut tearing issue will appreciate the scenario Carrie Weaver plunges her audience into and by the way there is a romance too.

Harriet Klausner