Amazon.com Review
K.C. McKinnon, nom de plume of respected literary novelist Cathie Pelletier, weaves a poignant tale of lifelong friendship, golden memories, forgotten dreams, and love in all its guises in
Candles on Bay Street. Years after leaving his childhood home of Fort Kent, Maine, veterinarian Sam Thibodeau returns with his wife and veterinary partner, Lydia Newhart, to open a practice. Sam had grown up, under the watchful eyes of the town's citizens, loving from afar Dee Dee Michaud, voted the biggest flirt and prettiest girl four years running. When Dee Dee left town immediately after high school graduation, she was engaged to Bobby Langford, whose only claim to fame was his brand-new gold Corvette. So Sam devoted himself to achieving his other, more scholarly dreams. And although he had faithfully followed his first love's progress via the small town grapevine, Sam is surprised when Dee Dee suddenly returns to Fort Kent with her young son, Trooper, in tow and Bobby Langford nowhere in sight. Dee Dee's small business, Candles on Bay Street, gains a loyal following, and Trooper settles in, making friends and spending time with Sam in the clinic and on rounds to the local community. But things are not the same. The once vivacious Dee Dee seems withdrawn and secretive, even as friends old and new reach out to enfold Trooper and his mother in their arms.
McKinnon has created a touching fable of love lost and found, friendships renewed, and the greatest gift of all--the sense of family that exceeds the bonds of blood or name. --Alison Trinkle
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Again writing under the McKinnon pseudonym (Dancing at the Harvest Moon), veteran novelist Cathie Pelletier (The Funeral Makers) tugs at the heartstrings in a formulaic weeper with a feel-good message. "She was the childhood sweetheart I wanted to marry," says nice-guy Sam Thibodeau, a veterinarian in Fort Kent, Maine, of his childhood friend, Dee Dee Michaud. But back in 1982, Dee Dee drove off with local bad boy Bobby Langford in his gold Corvette, leaving Sam still carrying the torch. After an absence of 15 years, Dee Dee returns with her son, nine-year-old Trooper, and she sets up a store called Bay Street Candles in her home. Much to Sam's chagrin, his wife, Lydia, and Dee Dee become best friends and soul sisters, with nary a touch of jealousy over Sam. All too soon McKinnon's heavy-handed foreshadowing makes it clear that Dee Dee has chosen to return to Fort Kent for the saddest of reasons. Overused candle metaphors and Dee Dee's saccharine belief that every time you light a candle an angel is born illuminate the strikingly pale heroine's plight a bit too clearly. McKinnon skirts lugubrious overkill with some humorous touches, however, and the ending is quietly touching without being overly mawkish. Her strength here is the well-developed notion that while small town life, with its judgments and scandals, is often a place one escapes from, one can come home again for emotional and spiritual sustenance.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
