Luanne Rice, Dance With Me

Dance With Me

Luanne Rice

Bantam, Feb 2004, $22.95, 340 pp.

ISBN: 0553802275

In Twin Rivers, Rhode Island, former high school Principal Margaret Porter slides in and out of senility. Her youngest daughter Sylvie takes a leave of absence from her job as the local high school librarian to care for her mom. Margaret's oldest daughter Jane, a successful New York baker, comes home to help, but brings with her a very sweet cake that her mom the diabetic should not eat.

Though her mother seems to have forgotten the secret they shared, Jane feels guilt over the hush-hush that drove her out of town. Jane meets and befriends young Chloe, the child she gave up at birth under pressure from her own mother. The Chadwick brood adopted Chloe and love her as if she was biologically one of their own. Soon Jane and Dylan Chadwick, a former US Marshal whose wife and child died in a shootout, fall in love. However, she has the Chloe secret and he still feels guilt over what happened to his previous family making anything permanent seem impossible.

Fans of contemporary family drams with deep relationships will appreciate the latest Luanne Rice entry. The story line is solid due to a realistic cast struggling with interrelating with one another. The two siblings and the Chadwick crew seem so genuine while Margaret's condition comes across so real and adds depth as to what is best for an aging parent and for their caretaker. Though the reconciliation ending seems to easily done even if Chloe "named" herself, fans will enjoy this delightful story.

Harriet Klausner