Beth has always played it safe. She's been the peacemaker. She's never worked outside the home, not since she and her two sisters performed a moppet singing act as children. Younger sister Chelsea still sings and acts. Older sibling Andrea has become a hardheaded lawyer.

Chelsea drags Beth to a lecture featuring Dr. Kenneth C. Lanigan and his message of journeying "beyond your inner self." His words strike a responsive chord within Beth. And his handsome face and body arouse her as well.

Grandma Ro raised Beth and her sisters after their mother's death and their father's retreat from life into an alcoholic haze. Now she wants Tall Pines, the Catskill Mountain Resort where the girls performed, restored to its former glory.

Beth wants to honor her grandmother's wish. And she wants her father, now sober for ten years, to have a happy life as well -- even if it means marrying a Vegas showgirl.

Tara Day, the showgirl in question, is a wonderfully intelligent and sensible girl from Martinique. She truly loves the girls' father, even if she is younger than his daughters.

The descriptions of the heyday of the Catskills is an interesting backdrop to the family saga. The three sisters have very different personalities and extremely different ways of coping. Personal and group growth is made as we explore Lanigan's messages of self fulfillment.

Beth learns to make herself happy. This story of family guilt and pain is well plotted and presented. The characters are believable and sympathetic. And the conclusion is highly satisfying. This is a great example of women's fiction.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Sweet

Reviewer: Lynn Bushey
February 19, 2008