A DAZZLING SPRING

Author: C.J. Winters ISBN: 0759943656 6/2005 FICTION Publisher: HARD SHELL WORD FACTORY

It's the 1963 holiday season in New York, and talented actress Danica Britt is newly engaged to Tyler Newton, star of their television sitcom. History professor-novelist Zane McCaul visits the studio and encounters Dannie, who is being considered for the starring role in the tv production of his best-seller. Although Zane is fourteen years her senior and burdened by a polio-limp, his subtle charisma and ironic expression reveal an inner star quality that soon draws Dannie's professional and personal attention. Widowed, lonely and reserved, Zane is enthralled by the fey, nervy young beauty whose incandescence seems to promise future stardom. Complicated by Dannie's ambition and her engagement to the enigmatic Tyle, a complex, edgy relationship develops between the professor and the actress, based on collaboration, Dannie's desire for a mentor, and Zane's desire for her. The Autumn in Cranky Otter series is a 20th Century American family tapestry, woven of the love stories and luminous psychic threads binding four generations.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I'm not quite sure how I feel about A DAZZLING SPRING, by C. J. Winters. It neither inspires great passion or great anxiety, and that leads me to believe I find it rather ho-hum.

Having never read a story set in this time period, I was somewhat excited about it. A story with a wannabe top actress for a heroine who is somewhat clairvoyant, sounds interesting enough, but don't get your hopes up. Nothing too spooktacular happens with her powers, other than she can give her acting partner silent cues so he doesn't mess up their scenes. Her lusting after a professor that has written the perfect character for her to portray, is somewhat lackluster as well. Even their first sexual encounter runs out of steam, truly. Perhaps I just don't like realistic first time moments *snort*.

The change in mind set the heroine goes through, from "all about me and my career" to "guess I do love you and this baby enough to give up my life's dream", in the end is predictable yet still happens rather suddenly, leaving me wondering that if I could only have a good night's sleep my life will completely fall into place, too. Anyway, this one just kinda kills time and gives some decent dialogue '60's style. Other than that, it's Yawnsville.

Shannon Johnson