CROSSROADS

Author: Belva Plain ISBN: 9780385336840 12/2008 FICTION Publisher: DELACORTE

Cassie Wright never saw it coming. As owner of Wright Glassworks, the foremost company in a thriving New England town, Cassie’s life was quiet, focused on her work and home…until a tragic accident turns her carefully ordered world upside down. For there is a surviving child to think about—and Cassie must take in one-year-old Gwen, who has no one else to care for her. As the years pass, Cassie will raise Gwen as her own, and a little girl who lost everything will flourish in a world of privilege and opportunity. Enter Jewel Fairbanks. Beautiful and conniving, Jewel will touch the lives of both Cassie and Gwen in powerful ways. From the moment they meet, Jewel envies Gwen, who seems to have everything Jewel wants. The two couldn’t be more different, but their lives will soon become inextricably intertwined. Both will marry—but to profoundly different men. For Gwen, it is honest, hardworking Stan who steals her heart; Jewel will set her sights on Jeff, a shrewd businessman who owns the company where Stan works. But when Stan makes a shocking discovery on the job, relationships begin to shift and change...and soon a tangled drama of greed, jealousy, and betrayal will encircle both couples, as a chain reaction of unexpected events changes fourlives forever—in ways they never could have foreseen….

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Belva Plain fans will love CROSSROADS. A story about families and the dramas that bind them forever, it shows that even in the best of families there is room for jealousy, conflict and greed. It also shows that families can, in fact, overcome almost any obstacle—even those brought about by deception and betrayal.

Cassandra brings a ten-month-old baby home to Wrightsville after the baby's parents are killed in an automobile crash. She renames the baby Gwendolyn after her own mother and installs her in her home. Her new daughter does well, but is not a happy child. She never smiles, but Cassandra is caught up with the demands of Wright Glassworks and cannot afford to pay much mind to the fact. Gwen grows up and marries a man who is kind, and even though they suffer through great sadness, they are, at least, together.

Jewel is all Gwen isn't. Loud and flashy, she marries a man who is not kind—at least not down deep, where it counts. After Gwen loses a baby, he follows her around town and by the way he moves like a stealthy rat, it is clear he is up to no good. Of course, the good faction must face the bad in Wrightsville, and for a while it is not at all apparent which of the two will come out on top. There are moments when I wondered if any of them would survive.

CROSSROADS illustrates the strength in the bonds of family—even the family bonds that are made, not by blood ties, but by hearts.

Kay James