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TABLE FOR FIVE
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MIRA Hardcover April 2005
Doubleday Large
Print hardcover April 2005
Reviewer Sissy Jacobson
Contemporary Romance
TABLE FOR FIVE is the story of five
people who are plunged into the depths of grief so deep they think they
will never recover, and the love they share that helps them pull
through.
The Holloways have
it all for a while. Derek Holloway works hard to stay at the top of the
PGA circuit. He is wealthy and handsome with a beautiful, vibrant, wife,
Crystal, and three children. Cameron, age 15, is doing well in school
and seems to be planning to follow in his father’s footsteps in golf;
Charlene (Charlie) is in the third grade and understands everything
about golf. She’s a crack score-keeper; and then there is Ashley, the
two-year-old darling of the family. Yes, they have it all…until the
cracks made by Derek’s infidelity split the family wide open ending it
with divorce. Now the final break…an automobile accident that kills both
Derek and Crystal.
Lily Robinson had
only one true friend in her whole life, Crystal Holloway. They were
closer than sisters, and Lily was an honorary aunt to the Holloway
children. They adore her and she loves them as her own. Crystal had once
made Lily promise that if anything happened to her, she would take care
of the children.
Sean Maguire,
Derek’s half-brother, also a golfer, has just returned to the states
after playing the Asian tour for several years, when he receives the
tragic phone call. He immediately flies to Comfort, Oregon, to be with
the children, only to find Lily already there.
After the funeral,
all are shocked when Sean is named guardian of the children in Derek’s
will. Crystal had never signed her will after she changed it naming Lily
as their guardian. Sean hasn’t a clue how to raise children, but rolls
up his sleeves and plunges in, doing the best he can. Lily doesn’t want
to seem interfering, yet she doesn’t always agree with Sean’s methods of
child rearing. Sean does know one thing: he has to get a job. Derek’s
agent pulls a miracle out of the hat and gets Sean started on the PGA
tour with Wonder Bread as his sponsor. According to Wiggs, “The truth
is, Derek, the elder, was the hard worker, the consistent player. Sean,
with more talent but less dedication, always seemed to be in his shadow,
but no one was forcing him to stand there.”
Lily surprises them
all by driving up in her sister’s R.V. decorated by Wonder Bread, with
shirts and caps with the WB logo on them. Can they learn to pull
together as a family during this summer road trip in order to help Sean
as he begins climbing the ladder in the PGA?
There is no way that
one can write about the length of time it takes for people to begin to
get over the deaths of loved ones, but Susan Wiggs has used pacing to
smoothly begin pulling this made up family of five back onto the road to
normalcy.
TABLE FOR FIVE is
built around not only the deaths of the parents, and their loved ones
left behind to mourn them, but also about golf. It doesn’t matter
whether or not you know anything about golf, you will understand the
story and the realistic characters and their actions. I only had to call
my son once to ask a question about golf so I could write this review
with some degree of accuracy. My only warning is have a box of tissues
near during the first part of the book.
As usual, Susan
Wiggs has written a story filled with characters that touch our hearts
and stay with us long after the book has ended.
July 2005
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