Review: Vanessa Grant extends her literary reach with great success.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 10, 2014
LIFELINES: KATE’S STORYBy Vanessa Grant *****Kate’s story is one of the best women’s fiction novels I have read in a long time. In this multilayered, exquisitely written story, Ms. Grant leads the reader deeper and deeper into the life and vicissitudes of Family Counselor Kate Taylor, recently widowed but struggling to go on. Not only must she deal with her aging mother, who resents what she considers Kate’s interference, but which Kate sees as responsibility toward a woman who shows little financial sense; her grown daughter, who grows daily more distant; and an extremely difficult, narcissistic client; Kate must come to grips with her own loss.Kate’s story is also Evelyn’s story, Jennifer’s story, and Rachel’s story, women who need her each in a different way, women who often sap her strength, depriving her of the time she needs to heal from her own grief and sense of guilt. Each of those women is a fully-formed character in her own right. Each has a distinct personality which helps create the colorful tapestry of this novel as their lives both blend with and pull against Kate.When Kate meets a man whose personality meshes with hers, whose likes and dislikes mostly mirror her own, she finds herself wondering if she can possibly love again. Then, to her dismay, she is faced with a serious, professional dilemma, forced to weigh professional duty against her personal life, to choose an action that could cost her career, and also the man she’s beginning to love.