From Publishers Weekly
Brandeis's heartwarming but forgettable newest follows two women, different as night and day, pursuing separate fortunes that eventually collide. Izzy and her nine-year-old daughter, Quinn, roam the country as migrant fruit pickers, constantly running from something that Izzy can never articulate. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, an up-and-coming 17-year-old figure skater named Karen finds herself falling for her new skating partner, the charismatic Nathan, while skirting ever closer to her Olympic dreams. Once Izzy and Quinn land in a Sacramento, Calif., delta town where they can settle down a bit, a pair of stranded whales draws the attention of the media, putting Izzy unwittingly in the spotlight--and causing her past to re-emerge, with far-reaching consequences for the unsuspecting Karen. Brandeis's latest effort is sweet but predictable; astute readers will quickly pick up on the twist uniting her twin stories and spend much of the book waiting for it to materialize. Tension within the plot lines, particularly between Karen and Nathan, is handled broadly and without exploring the stakes, giving readers little incentive to carry on.
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From
Izzy is a young migrant worker with a nine-year-old daughter. Though never in one place very long, Izzy gets sidetracked at a pear orchard in the Sacramento Delta. The owners donβt mind having a child around, and she and her daughter finally have a roof over their heads. Lulled into a false sense of security, Izzy begins to let her guard down only to find that her past is catching up with her. Karen is an up-and-coming pairs figure skater with an overly demanding mother and a good-looking, ambitious new partner. Crazy in love, Karen finds herself mixed up in a plot to win the nationals at a very steep price. Told in alternating chapters, it seems there is no way that the lives of these two very different women would ever cross. But as Brandeis leaves clues and the novel unfolds, it becomes all too obvious how these women are connected. Alas, once the connection is made, the story loses its intrigue, the plot seem rather far-fetched, and the ending feels contrived. --Carolyn Kubisz