The Fortune Teller's Daughter
A quiet, sentimental romance with a pace to match its smalltown setting finds its eponymous heroine looking for stability in Moose River Junction after a lifetime of traveling from place to place in her mother's wake. Sabine Heartwood is happy in her newly settled life until her flighty mother, Madame Ruby, starts proclaiming visions of a coming upheaval. Meanwhile, Danford Smith has returned from New York City to nurse his ailing grandmother through her final days and set his family's affairs in order before returning to a promising career as a filmmaker. Of course life has other plans, and Dan finds himself mired in the quicksand of family loyalties and new obligations. As his long-distance relationship with rising starlet Karen Whitcomb unravels, Dan is increasingly drawn to the lovely and forthright Sabine, who seems to understand something about him that he himself does not. As for Sabine, the psychic gift she has long rejected awakens, intimating dark secrets in Dan's past and that of Moose River. While the protagonists' developing romance is hardly a surprise, it is handled with a light touch. There are many other threads explored and the result is a beguiling bit of storytelling with a bustling, likable cast  an enjoyable if not exactly thrilling read. Wilson (Hawke's Cove) is making a career out of chamomile tea novels, and those who have enjoyed her past efforts will not be disappointed.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.