"A beautiful contemporary romance"
Harris Henderson is in shock from the medical report that
informs him that his beloved five-year-old daughter Marion
suffers from the worst type of juvenile diabetes.
Desperate he advertises for a caregiver, hoping to have
someone apply to live in his isolated bird sanctuary and
rehabilitation center in the wilderness in the South
Carolina Low Country. However, he feels lucky when a
registered pediatric nurse answers his ad. Weary Ella
Majors feels burned out helplessly watching children die
after a decade in the ER; she feels the change from Vermont
to Carolina will rejuvenate her. The two agree on a one-
year contract after a one-month trial period. Harris soon finds himself surrounded by two-legged prey.
Besides his new employee, a teen is sentenced to giving
community time at the center for shooting a bird. Marian's
druggie mother arrives causing havoc for one and all.
However,
amidst these intruders, Harris and Ella fall in love even
while the nurse also loves her patient. This strong contemporary romance stays above the soap opera
level that the plot could have become because the big three
members of the cast seem very real as they reach out to
one another. The birds and their home provide an atypical
background so that the audience will appreciate the way
Mary Alice Monroe spins it into the tale. The teen enables
the reader to see how much the adults care, but the mother
is too pathetic too matter except in adding unnecessary
tension to a powerful human drama. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 23, 2003
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