Review: Heartwarming 4 1/2 Star Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 2, 2012
Not since Stephen King's11/22/63have I picked up a book and felt compelled to read at every opportunity I could spare a minute.  Rebecca Stroud'sDevil's Moondid that for me.  I opened this book yesterday intending to read 2 maybe 3 chapters, but suddenly found myself a bit over 60% in with a family clamoring for their dinner.  Immediately after doing the serving & clearing up, I sat back down and literally devoured the rest of this story.  It is shorter then King so you can easily finish in a day, his took me a week.The main characters in this book are mostly extremely likeable as well as believable.  They are:Sam- a kindhearted, veterinarian who is also Jane's husband.  This is a second attempt at matrimony for both and a very happy one.Jane- wife of Sam who works at a really crappy job for Randall a basket case, whiner, loser boss, but volunteers at the local animal shelter as well.Devil- Jane's getting older, ugly, but much beloved dog who is embraced by the whole family.Danny- son of Sam and Bambi who I will describe later and is the pretty typical 17 yr old child of divorced parents when one parent is acrimonious and can't move on.  Conflicted and afraid to let his step-mom Jane too far into his life.And then there is Bambi- a foul mouthed southern belle, piece of nasty work who believes the sun rises and sets on her or at least it should.  She cannot cope with having been replaced by Jane as Sam's wife feeling Jane is inferior to her and becomes seriously unbalanced with a severe drinking problem to boot.This story allows us to follow this dysfunctional family through a period of time and watch as one women falls apart and crumbles, yet does not change while the rest struggle to form a cohesive, loving family unit.  It is griping, suspenseful even though you know who the bad guy (gal) is almost immediately and will pull you along from the very first word written on the page.I recommend you give this one a chance.