Limelight » (Large Prin)

Melody Carlson is an award-winning, best-selling author of more than two hundred books including The Other Side of Darkness, On This Day, Crystal Lies, Finding Alice, and several series for teens. Melody and her husband live in central Oregon, where they enjoy an active lifestyle of skiing, hiking, gardening, camping, and biking. They are the parents of two grown sons.

Claudette Fioré used to turn heads and break hearts. She relished the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle because she had what it takes: money, youth, fame, and above all, beauty. But age has withered that beauty, and a crooked accountant has taken her wealth, leaving the proud widow penniless and alone.

Armed with stubbornness and sarcasm, Claudette returns to her shabby little hometown and her estranged sister. Slowly, she makes friends. She begins to see her old life in a new light. For the first time, Claudette Fioré questions her own values and finds herself wondering if it's too late to change.

Publishers Weekly

Inspirational author Carlson, whose sales exceed 2.5 million copies, offers her fans a delightful tale of a beautiful starlet whose life in the limelight has long passed the curtain-call stage. Claudette Fioré, widow of the deceased famed director Gavin Fioré, loses her home after an accountant misappropriates the family fortune. Claudette, despondent with grief, attempts to kill herself and lands in a hospital, where she implores her gay stepson to rescue her. Once Claudette is released, she is forced to return to her mother's home and, through a comedy of errors, realizes her once glamorous lifestyle has left her bereft of any life skills. With only an estranged sister to turn to, Claudette begrudgingly pays sister Violet a call in the local retirement facility. Too bad they refuse to make amends; Claudette must suffer yet more indignities as she slowly learns that her sister has similarly suffered in her own way. Carlson's story line, though implausible, is full of keen, dry wit and will more than make up for the unlikely events. (Oct.)