Owen Fletcher has returned to Little Pelham, a place where he knew some happiness during a childhood where his father used his fists on both his mother and himself. Mia is a mother of three grown up children, married to the self-obsessed Jeff Channing who tries to control their whole family and plays favourite with his children. When Owen and Mia meet, they are instantly attracted to each other. However, when tragedy strikes Mia's family, her guilt and self-blame may never see her finding happiness. Especially liked the peacock. ( )

A village saga, starring middle-aged Mia, who has three likeable adult children and a somewhat obnoxious husband, Jeff. The wealthy Owen arrives in the village, drawn by memories of his childhood when he escaped from an abusive father to learn music from two sweet old ladies.

It's character-based, with a fairly light plot, at least for the first half of the book. I found it a bit slow-moving, and some of the people caricatured, but it was pleasant enough and made good bedtime reading. I had no problem remembering the fairly large cast: well-chosen names and characteristics helped me distinguish and remember them from day to day. I very much liked Owen, and also nine-year-old Madison. The viewpoint changes rather too often for my tastes, but it's handled well, on the whole, although I felt that some editing would have helped: there's rather a lot of introspection, and some generalisations that don't add to the story.

Then drama and tragedy strike in a way that felt somewhat unnecessary, pitchforking the family into recriminations, anger, grief, and some difficult decisions. Perhaps there was no other way to move the story forward - and it certainly made the last part more of a page-turner, although I didn't find my emotions much moved. Overall, it wasn't one of Erica James' best. Perhaps three-and-a-half stars would be fairer, but I tend to expect more from this author, who has produced some excellent and moving novels.

Still, it would make good holiday reading. The language is mostly clean, and there's nothing explicit. ( )

Sloppily written, and emotionally immature. ( )