Barefoot in the Rain
By Roxanne St. Claire
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Jocelyn Bloom left Mimosa Key as a teenager, determined
never to return. She’s been back only three times in fifteen years: for her
mother’s funeral, for a crucial town meeting, and for the wedding of one of her
closest friends. Now she’s been named the other woman in the divorce of one of
the celebrity clients she serves as life coach, and Jocelyn needs a sanctuary.
Her other high-profile clients are distancing themselves, and the paparazzi are
after her in a feeding frenzy. Longtime friend Lacey Walker offers privacy and
support at the upscale resort she and her husband Clay are building at Barefoot
Bay. Jocelyn is not surprised when not only Lacey but also their other best
friends Tessa and Zoe meet her at the airport, but she’s totally unprepared for
a meeting with Will Palmer, a friend with whom she shares an even older
history, the one for whom she fled Mimosa Key.
Will Palmer was a golden boy. A star athlete in high school
with a college baseball scholarship that the town, Will’s father, and Will
himself expected to be a logical step on his path to a major league career, he
never expected to be back in Mimosa Key, living in his parents’ house, working
as a skilled carpenter on Lacey and Clay Walker’s dream project, and taking
care of a man he has every reason to hate. Will has spent a lot of time over
the past fifteen years thinking about Jocelyn Bloom, his best friend from the
time he was ten until that night etched forever in his memory when two
eighteen-year-olds almost became lovers and Will tasted failure more bitter
than any loss he’s ever known on a baseball diamond.
Jocelyn, a woman in control with a detailed plan for every
move, is about to get a lesson in how little she can control. First there’s the
unexpected meeting with Will, and then there’s the news that her father, whom
she hasn’t seen since her mother’s funeral, is suffering from Alzheimer’s and
is being cared for by Will, whom he once threatened to kill. The powerful
father she hates has become a harmless old man who knits, does needlepoint, and
watches TV. He thinks Will is his son, and he’s forgotten he had a daughter. He
thinks Jocelyn has come from his favorite HGTV show, Clean House, to reorganize his home and give him a new start in
life. Jocelyn plans to find her father a place in a home that can care for him.
Will, who has come to care for the helpless man, wants her to forgive her father.
Even more he wants a second chance with Jocelyn. But Will doesn’t know
everything that happened that long ago night, and Jocelyn is still fiercely
protecting her secrets, old and new. Can a heart guarded by defensive walls so
thick open itself to love’s healing touch?
Roxanne St. Claire is another of my autobuy authors, and I
enjoyed Barefoot in the Sand, the
first book in her Barefoot Bay series. But the first book didn’t prepare me for
the power of Barefoot in the Rain. St.
Claire deals with important issues realistically and poignantly. She shows the
complex emotions that are entangled in domestic abuse and the ways even those
who escape are shaped by the experience. She gives the best portrait I’ve seen
in fiction of the ways Alzheimer’s steals its victim’s memories and transforms
personality. Having dealt with Alzheimer’s personally, I also appreciated her
showing the black humor that stems from these changes.
But this book is so much more than just another issues book.
It’s also a book that raises questions about the human capacity for change and
for forgiveness. Are some things unforgiveable? Can people who are guilty of
heinous actions change? Is harboring even deserved anger and hatred worth the
prison sentence it imposes on the heart that holds such darkness?
Barefoot in the Rain
is a terrific romance by conventional criteria. I cared about these characters.
I was totally engaged by Jocelyn and Will’s relationship, I loved seeing Lacey
and Clay living their HEA, and I look forward to returning to Barefoot Bay for
Zoe’s and Tessa’s stories. But it’s those questions that the book poses that
haunt me. It’s those questions that make me not only give this book my highest
recommendation but also add a request. If you read only a dozen romances this
year, make this one of them.
What other romances have you read that left you thinking
long thoughts and pondering significant questions?
