Nancy Baxter Norma Ever After

Norma Ever After

Nancy Baxter

Ballantine, Aug 2005, $13.95

ISBN: 0345479149

In the Midwest lives Norma, who blames her mother for her boring name, unlike those of her older and younger sisters; everyone knows Norma is the aging spinster aunt. Nearing thirty, Norma believes that her chances to find passionate love is nearing an end, but has no prospects. She is a genealogist whose excitement relies on other people's pasts.

Norma has been unhappy with her bland life for years. In fact she thinks back to childhood when Ken and Barbie were her ideals, and her father told her exciting tales of trips around the world. Just before dying he gives her a key to his merchant marine chest. Inside, she finds money and an escape plan. She also finds a toy that make her believe her father's stories about the Isles of Orkney and Tammie were real. She heads to the Orkney Islands where she makes friends and enemies, and soon finds herself attracted to a gloomy artist, an upbeat visiting Texan, and especially a math professor who does not trust women after his ex's cuckold on him.

Though somewhat like Cinderella, enters the chick lit lane, NORMA EVER AFTER is much more because her sisters and mother are not nasty souls, just people who care and want more from the underachieving heroine. It is in the isles just off Scotland that Norma begins to find herself, but who will she be with, if anyone, once midnight strikes, still worries her especially when malevolent girlfriends and kindhearted grandmothers intercede. Fans will appreciate this strong character study, hoping for Norma to have a happily ever after.

Harriet Klausner