Kate Austin Dragonflies and Diamonds

Dragonflies and Diamonds

Kate Austin

Harlequin Next, Dec 2005, $5.50

ISBN: 037388074X

Two years ago her mother died from breast cancer shaking up then forty- years old Randy Roman, who already suffered from panic attacks and other anxieties. Now her sister Susan suffers from the same illness sending Randy's stress level to the stratosphere. Increasing her sibling's anxiety exponentially, Susan asks Randy to escort her two sons Mickey and Eric to their hometown of Cranberry Portage, Canada to sprinkle their mom's ashes over the turf the woman cherished.

Unable to say no, Randy screws up her courage, takes leave from the bank she has worked at for two decades, and begins the quest accompanied by her nephews and Dexter the canine they found on the trail. Along the way Randy becomes comfortable with her charges and much of her stress vanishes. In Cranberry Portage, she meets biologist Tom Webb, who lives in what was once her mom's home.

DRAGONFLIES AND DIAMONDS is a captivating look at a woman who finds anything outside of her narrow comfort zone debilitating, but shows courage as she treks with her nephews on a journey that turns into one of self discovery. Randy is a crippled person unable to do much more than work at the bank when her sister hits her with the only task that she cannot refuse in spite of the crippling fear that threatens to drown her. Readers will sympathize with the embattled heroine trying to overcome her phobia though the ending is too simple for such a deep psychological drama.

Harriet Klausner