Born In The Valley (Shelter Valley Stories)

Rating:
Summary: deep look at a relationship on the brink
Review: After seven years of marriage, Keith Nielson feels he has everything as he has a fine job at the Montford University Television Station and still loves his wife and child. However, Keith worries about his spouse Bonnie who seems to have lost her spark. He asks her what is disturbing her, but she insists nothing. Even when her brother the Shelter Valley sheriff tells her that an arsonist burned down a closet at her beloved day care center she barely raised an eyebrow. Seeing how discontented she seems, Keith fears that his beloved no longer loves him.

Bonnie loves her husband and their three-year-old daughter. She wants to do something different, but does not know how to inform her cherished Keith, who will be badly hurt. However, she knows if she fails to act now, even if the risk is her life with Keith, she will regret this forever.

The latest Shelter Valley tale focuses on two obviously loving people heading down opposite roads because one of them has changed and seeks a new and different kind of fulfillment. The clever story line enables the audience to feel Keith's concern that he is losing her and Bonnie's conscience that reminds her how much she will hurt her beloved. Though resolution seems too easy after all the angst, anxiety, and fears, fans will appreciate Tara Taylor Quinn's deep look at a relationship in which one partner desires a U-turn.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Born in the Valley
Review: BORN IN THE VALLEY by Tara Taylor Quinn

Tara Taylor Quinn's BORN IN THE VALLEY centers around Bonnie Nielsen and her search for something different that can bring fulfillment to her life. She is happily married to husband Keith and they share a wonderful daughter named Katie, who is in preschool. Besides being a mother and wife, she also runs a day care called Little Spirits, which has been a great success. However, when Bonnie starts to show dissatisfaction with her life, Keith isn't sure what to think, and feels that it must have something to do with him. But, no matter how often Keith asks Bonnie, she can't explain why she is not happy. All she knows is that what she currently has is not enough. She loves Keith and Katie, and she cannot understand why she needs something more.

In the meantime, Little Spirits has been plagued with some bad luck. Fires have broken out, and while at first her brother Greg, the Sheriff of Shelter Valley, thinks the first fire may have been the result of a prank, they soon begin to suspect arson. But who would purposefully try to burn down the daycare? Bonnie has kept some information to herself, the fact that she is being forced to move the daycare to a different property. When Greg finds out the truth, he wonders if her landlord may be the one that is trying to chase her out.

While Bonnie is battling with problems at the daycare, she is also watching her marriage fall apart. Keith no longer trusts her, since he senses that she is hiding something from him and is not willing to talk to him about how she feels. He confides with a co-worker Martha, who convinces him the solution may be to have another baby. To his dismay, it only pushes Bonnie further away. And Shane, an old boyfriend of Bonnie's who sustained brain damage from a skiing accident, now works for Bonnie at the daycare, and he reminds her of their high school days, when they were an item.

BORN IN THE VALLEY was a pleasant read. However, there were a few scenes that I felt didn't belong in this book. I also felt the character of Martha, Keith's co-worker, was a little hard to figure out at times (was she or wasn't she coming on to Keith?). Despite the few flaws I found in the novel, I'm going to give this book 4 stars.