~ Review: Storm ~

STORM - Pamela Leigh Starr  Genesis Press/Indigo  1-58571-323-6 February 2008

SYNOPSIS: 

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE |4|  Marguerite Lemons

REVIEW:  Sabrina Adams has known the two things she wanted to accomplish in life since she was a child.  The first is to dance and the second one is to let her best-friend’s brother know exactly how she feels about him.  John Lewis lives and breathes music.  He feels that there is no room in his life for a wife, because music is his one and only love.  Sabrina is displaced from her home, like thousands of other’s running from the storm.  She is mortified when she realizes that she is stuck in a shelter with John.  The same John that she embarrassed herself with by throwing herself at him, the previous night, in hopes that he would return her feelings.  John can’t believe his luck, first he runs out of gas on his way home from a gig, and then he finds himself wondering when Sabrina went from being “the pest” to a full-grown, curvy woman.  But he has time to think about it out while he and the rest of world wait for the aftermath of a “Storm” named Katrina.

Sabrina is a loving, happy, and caring person, who, like most women, will move heaven and earth to make sure those she love are safe and taken care of.  She handles the situation with John very well, even though she allows her uncle to treat her like a minor caught sneaking around with an older man.  John, to my dismay, seems somewhat childish, until you realize that he internalizes everything and it takes him a little longer to process his feelings.  This becomes evident by his refusal to return to New Orleans and accept the fact that everything he’s ever known may be gone.  But luckily, he still has the love and support of his family.  I love the supporting characters, especially the meddling grandmother’s.  Their antics are hilarious.  It was also fun to see John’s family encourage Sabrina and continue to treat her like family, even when John’s indecisiveness begins to take its toll.

STORM is a well written, fast-paced story about people surviving the Katrina disaster and going on to either rebuild their lives in New Orleans, or make new ones in other areas of the country.  Ms. Starr focused on the human element, and how everyone has to learn to release the past in order to embrace the future.  She has written a story of hope and the renewal of the spirit that can only come from surviving the devastation of one’s history and the loss of everything we hold dear.

reviewer@romanceincolor.com | 11th May 2008