Because of Joe
Liz FlahertyContemporary Romance
Available from NovelBooks, Inc.
February 2003
ISBN: 1-59105-074-X electronic
ISBN: 1-59105-099-5 trade paperback
| Clarissa Aloysious Ragsdale, better known as Rags, had been orphaned as a child-maybe that's what made her the perfect mother. Married to Teluride Maguire, she raised three children-Ben, the eldest and Micah and Marley the twins. Rags' life revolved totally around her children while Tell totally immersed himself in the stressful day-to-day business of Maguire Industries. Unable to make time for one another, they were drifting apart. Twelve years after a high school liaison, Tell comes face-to-face with the son he sired-Joe, an emaciated, diabetic child whose drug-using mother has died. Perhaps drawing on her own memories of being an orphan is what made it easy for Rags to accept Joe as her own, but what she couldn't and wouldn't accept was Tell's inability to claim responsibility for this, his own flesh and blood-a child he supposed had been aborted with money paid by Tell's own father, Harlan. Tell is not the man she believed him to be. Eleven years after the divorce, Joe once again becomes the center of attention when they all gather for the funeral of Harlan Maguire. At twenty-four, Joe is seriously ill, but refuses to accept help, because of the guilt he has carried with him since his parents divorced. What happens during the family gathering will make you laugh and cry, but most of all you will identify with every emotion of the characters. Who would think that a spunky seventy-five year-old Bed and Breakfast proprietor named Esther would be the savior in this heart-warming, realistic story . "Because of Joe" is the most entertaining and emotionally stimulating book I've read in a very long time. Liz Flaherty is a talented author with writing skills to be envied. I read "Because of Joe" from start to finish, in one evening, because I truly mean it when I say, I couldn't put it down! And what's even more surprising, I came away hoping that someday my own husband will say to me..."I love you more than cotton candy at a county fair, Old Lady!"
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Reviewer: Brett Scott |
