Home Before Dark » (Unabridged, 7 cassettes, 10 hrs.)

Susan Wiggs' first book was published by Zebra in 1987, and since then she has been published by Avon, Tor, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Mira and Warner Books. Susan is a frequent workshop leader and speaker at writers' conferences, including the Romance Writers of America conference, the PNWA and Maui Writers Conference. She won a RITA award in 1994, and her recent novel The Charm School was voted one of RWA's Favorite Books of the Year.
She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Jay, her daughter, Elizabeth, and an Airedale that hasn't been groomed since 1994.

In her career as a photojournalist, free-spirited Jessie Ryder has seen the world through her camera lens. But she's never traveled far enough to escape a painful moment that has haunted her for the past sixteen years: the day she gave her baby daughter away. Now, facing a life-altering crisis, she's decided to fix the broken pieces of her heart and seek out Lila, even if it means she has to upset the world of Lila's adoptive mother...her very own sister, Luz.

Like a Technicolor tornado bursting into Luz's picture-perfect life, Jessie returns to her Texas hometown with a shattering request. She wants to tell Lila the truth. As Luz and her husband struggle with what Jessie's return may mean to rebellious Lila, their seemingly solid marriage falters. Old secrets are exposed. Then, just as Jessie comes to terms with the past, life's bittersweet irony plays its hand. She meets Dustin Matlock, a young father who has survived a devastating loss. And Jessie begins to see the hopeful possibilities that lie buried in the most wrenching tragedies.

Though she aches to reach out to those she loves, Jessie stands at the crossroads. She is leaving behind the only life she knows and blindly leaping into the unknown. Now the choice she makes will affect the life of her daughter and challenge the meaning of sisterhood. As Jessie and Luz examine the true meaning of love, loyalty and family, they are drawn into an emotional tug-of-war filled with moments of unexpected humor, surprising sweetness and unbearable sadness. But as the pain, regrets and mistakes of the past slowly rise to the surface, a new picture emerges - a picture filled with hope, promise and the redeeming power of the human heart.

Publishers Weekly

Wiggs's latest is an entertaining romance perfect for beach listening. Sixteen years ago, unwed Jessie gave her newborn daughter up for adoption to her married sister (whose husband, unbeknownst to him, was actually the baby's father). Jessie then settled in New Zealand and became a celebrated nature photographer. Now going blind, she returns home to Texas to reconnect with her sister and see her daughter-and conveniently fall in love with Dusty, a widowed pilot who lives nearby. This is enjoyable fluff, apart from the clich of the heroine abruptly dumping the hero without explanation because she doesn't want to "burden" him with her terrible secret. Narrator Eby reads with expression, but ignores specific vocal directions in the text. It's jarring to hear various characters comment on Jessie's New Zealand accent when listeners are hearing her speak without one, or to learn that Jessie's mother, Glennie, has "a deep, sweet voice" when Eby reads her lines in a high, crackling tone. Throughout the text such lines as "her voice broke on a sob" or "there was a hitch in her voice" are not accompanied by any break or hitch in Eby's reading. On the positive side, she does attempt a Texas drawl for Dusty and a Spanish accent for his friend Arnufo. And she's terrific when portraying petulant teenager Lila: Eby's "Whatever!" captures teenage sarcasm perfectly (listeners can almost hear the accompanying eye roll). Simultaneous release with the Mira hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 31). (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.