Constance O’Day-Flannery, Twice in a Lifetime

Twice in a Lifetime

Constance O'Day-Flannery

Tor, December 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0765354047

As she nears fifty, widowed therapist Isabel Callaway still misses her late husband, although seven lonely years have passed. Only her friends at the Metaphysical Misadventures in the Search for Enlightenment, affectionately known as Yellow Brick Road Gang have made it palpable, as they search for the metaphysical reason of being, though change appears to be the constant.

Her friends insist she attend the Regional Conference for Clinical Hypnotherapists, so she agrees to lecture there. After her talk is over, an attendee, Joshua comes up to thank her, claiming she led an interesting discussion. Though he looks twenty years younger than her, she agrees to see him, which shocks her to her core, as she has not done anything remotely like this since her husband died. As they see one another, Isabel realizes that her Joshua is her imaginary friend from her childhood, who helped her survive trauma back then. He assists her, as she reaches out to her patients, and he becomes her lover, but as she regains her confidence, Isabel fears he will leave her again.

TWICE IN A LIFETIME is a complicated romantic fantasy worth the time to read, as Constance O'Day-Flannery provides a profound look at what is reality. The metaphysical discussions make for a complex storyline that needs a few days to read and ponder. Though the Yellow Brick Road Gang add support to the heroine, and much to the philosophical debate, they are difficult to keep apart from one another as they think, therefore they are what makes them interchange. Still, Ms. O'Day-Flannery's work will receive plenty of kudos as one the most complex thought provoking fantasies of the year.