Yesterday was a disaster.
The date didn't happen.
I was so excited, got all dressed up, bub down for a long nap and happily watched by grandpa, and headed off in the car.
Not 10 kms up the road, a slow moving truck flicks up a rock and puts a chip in my windscreen the size of a 10 cent piece. Ka-ching! Moula to fix when we got home.
It was only a minor blip but I instantly thought, 'what else is going to go wrong today?'
Well, we were on the freeway, almost to the city, when we got a call from DS1's kinder. There had been an incident. We had to get there asap.
So cue the exit off the freeway, get back on, in the opposite direction.
The exquisite lunch we had booked never happened.
Our first date in goodness knows how long...nada.
But the kids are all right and that's the main thing.
And after being quoted $200 to fix the windscreen (my hubby got this on the first phone call!) I rang around and got someone to come out and fix it for $65. That first mob is famous and first port of call for most people...robbery!
The highlight of my day?
Curling up and finishing Barbara Samuel's
NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
I met Barbara at the recent RWAus conference and was blown away. She's my idol.
So I rushed home that night and bought her entire backlist.
'No Place Like Home' is the first book I read...and oh my...she's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
I cried and I never cry with books. Movies, yes. Books, rarely.
Here's what it's about.
Sometimes a wrong turn is the only way home. . .
No Place Like Home tells the unforgettable story of a family bound together by tradition-and the emotional journey of an estranged daughter risking everything for a second chance at life and love.
Twenty-one years ago Jewel Sabatino left her childhood behind and never looked back. After a magical taste of fame, she found herself alone with a son to raise and not much else. She survived with the help of Michael, her one true friend. But now Michael is too sick to care for himself, and Jewel has run out of options. She leaves New York for the hills of Colorado, unsure if the family she ran from will welcome her back.
For Jewel, coming home is falling back into a world that smells of Italian restaurants and home-baked pies. It is the laughter of sisters preparing for a summer wedding, and the peaceful haven for a treasured soul mate's last days. It also means facing the unforgiving eyes of a father betrayed by his favorite child-and letting go of a son who is ready to become a man. But most of all, it is the love she discovers in her own wary heart when Michael's brother Malachi unexpectedly arrives on her doorstep.I will be devouring the rest of the books.
In fact, I'm already half way through
MADAME MIRABOU'S SCHOOL OF LOVE and I only started in last night!
I want to be Barbara when I grow up. :)
