The Calamity Janes

Rating:
Summary: Ambitious dreams -- Highly recommended
Review: Sherryl Woods continues this delightful miniseries, The Calamity Janes, with a single title release by the same name. Five friends share an enduring friendship, begun in high school, self-named for their penchant for broken hearts and troubles. Though their lives are widely divergent now, these women are still as close as sisters, despite their infrequent contact. In this forth installment, top Denver attorney Emma Rogers struggles with pressures from work, family and the past.

Competitive Emma is on a career fast track despite a divorce and motherhood. Too bad she rarely has time for dinner with her six-year-old daughter Caitlyn. Her ex had assumed she'd sacrifice her career to be a stay at home mother after a failed birth control fluke. But Emma hadn't cooperated. She hadn't excelled in law school only to walk away. Despite her ex's manipulations designed to sabotage her career, including the ultimate of betrayals, Emma was steadfast in her goals. The trouble is, years later she can't help wondering if she's making a mistake to allow the nanny the pleasure of raising her daughter.

Enjoying their first vacation in two years, Emma and Caitlyn return to Winding River, Wyoming for Emma's class reunion. Her immediate antipathy to the town's new newspaper publisher Ford Hamilton only results in friends and family's speculation and hope that she'll return to the slower paced town for keeps. Indeed, she's surprised to realize Ford easily matches the excitement she's only found before in court. But she's very uncomfortable that he's as adept at zeroing in on the hidden motives and the hearts of matters as any good prosecutor. She'd best find a quick defense before she gives away her heart and her future.

In this single title release of the Calamity Jane series, author Sherryl Woods dazzling gift for storytelling excels, as references to other books in the series enrich the narrative without inhibiting the flow. Heroine Emma's struggle with her inward expectations lends depth, giving voice to many career mom's concerns. Hero Ford Hamilton's persistence and perseverance in spite of Emma's protestations makes for enduring reading. Readers will also find themselves smiling at grandparent's efforts to charm their grandchild complete with pony and kitten. Very highly recommended.