Sunday, March 30, 2008

Bulls Island- Dorothea Benton Frank

Bulls Island
Dorothea Benton Frank
Morrow, Apr 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9780061438431

Two decades ago in the Carolinas, Betts McGee and J.D. Langley met and fell in love. However, she has working class genes while his blood is aristocratic. Still they seemed to have overcome their class differences when they became engaged. However, that same night her mom dies in a car accident while his mom Charleston sophisticate Louisa rants about dumbing down the blue blooded DNA. Unable to cope with her future mother-in-law from hell while grieving, Betts leaves her family, J.D. and the Carolinas behind to start fresh in Manhattan. No one back home knows she left pregnant and raised a son Adrian by herself while doing quite well with depressed real estate.

However, her current assignment is in the Charleston area where she will work a land deal with unhappily married to Valerie local J.D. She would prefer to be prisoner of terrorists or the CIA, but Betts heads home to work the BULLS ISLAND deal with his firm Langley development. As she realizes she never stopped loving J.D., she continues to conceal the lie of omission from him, her family, and Adrian while J.D. knows he is married to the wrong woman.

Although the audience knows what to expect, Dorothea Benton Frank provides an engaging contemporary family drama that showcases the author’s skill as throughout readers will have doubts about the anticipated outcome. The cast is solid with the story line mostly told from the viewpoint of the lead female. Readers will enjoy this fine romance as everyone will wonder whether Betts is willing to take a second chance at love while eluding gatorzilla.

Harriet Klausner

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