Richard M. (algernon99) - , reviewed on 11/5/2007 + 418 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

Abby Rose, a wealthy socialite, after her adventures in book one of this series has decided that her calling in life is to be an adoption private eye. That is, she is a private investigator who finds the birth parents of adopted children for them. (Perhaps there'll be other permutations of that pattern in books to comeâ¦.)

In this book, a young woman who is about to be married hires Abby to find her birth mother so she can come to the wedding. I'm not going to tell you anything more about the plot, which is quite interesting, but will be more fun for you to learn about as you read the book. I am, however, going to tell you about the book in other ways.

It's a fun book. Abby lives in Houston, Texas, and is a Texan through and through. (A âYellow Roseâ mysteryâget it?) She has the characteristic Texan turn of phrase that drops a delightful and unexpected simile on you every couple of pages. Things like, âShe needed that as much as an armadillo needs an Interstate.â Or âhe was as dangerous as eight acres of snakes.â If nothing else, the book has enough of these zingers to make it worth reading just for them.

Let me tell you, too, that it has enough staying power to overcome several profound obstacles. I was just about 30 pages into it when I somehow lost the book. Two months later, it emerged from its hiding place under the bed. So I started reading it again from the beginning. This time I got in about 50 pages when the mail brought a book I've been eagerly awaiting for a long time. I sat down to fondle the new treasure and sort of accidentally found myself reading it. Oops, Abby Rose is off in limbo again.

Well, I finished that book (Charlaine Harris's Grave Surprise), got started back with Abby again, thinking, âI wonder if this is worth coming back to. I don't seem to be captivated by it yet.â

The next day the mail brought another long-awaited fascinator, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink!. Again, it was so fascinating that I couldn't stop after reading the first page. Abby must have been getting rather accustomed to unexpected vacations in limbo about this time.

Ok, so I finish Blink!. Am I going to pick up Abby Rose and give her yet another try? Well, yes, I did. And I'm glad I did, because after a few more pages, things got very interesting. I decided I'd better finish it before something else came in the mail. I have just finished it, sitting here in my wife's office, before I could go home to the mailbox. Who knows what new distraction might await me there?

Not only is the tone of the book delightful, but the story has some moments that call for real introspective thought. As an adoptive parent (we have two adopted mixed-race children, now both grown), there is a lot to think about in these situations. Is it a good thing to find the birth parents after the child is grown? I still don't know, but these stories reveal some of the complexities that may be involved.

I recommend this book and the whole series.

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