Rebbie Macintyre, A Corner of the Universe

A Corner of the Universe

Rebbie Macintyre

Five Star, Feb 2010, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594148590

One week before her ailing mom died, Zoe and Cal married. She moves into his home where his grandma Hattie also lives. Soon afterward she miscarries. Three years later, now forty-one, Zoe is pregnant while Cal is never home as he works hard for the Mechen Medical Foundation trying to establish six clinics in Uganda.

They are going on a second honeymoon in two days when the twenty-one years old son he never met Seth Pruitt arrives. The couple delays their trip. Seth moves in though he plans to attend diving school in California soon. He treats the troubled eighteen year old neighbor Neva Reckart with scorn as she tries desperately to win his heart. Meanwhile Cal is increasingly distant as he is on the road with his beautiful assistant Melissa Delany while Seth turns increasingly belligerent towards Zoe and nasty towards adulating Neva.

This is an intriguing coming of age story, but it is not the tragic mentally incompetent Neva or the bullying Seth, but instead Zoe who realizes she has choices. The story line digs deeply into the four prime characters with the focus mostly on Zoe. Although at times the story line slows down due to the intense characterizations, fans will enjoy this well written extended family drama.

Harriet Klausner