Customer Reviews

The Living Stone

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Jane Orcutt opens her novel with a harsh look at reality...a husband and young child being killed by a drunk driver while the wife/mother watches from across the road. The story of Leah begins here.

We watch her life unfold as she goes from grief and anguish to rage and anger. She becomes in her own words "a living stone". She cuts herself and her emotions off completely. Her parents want to rule her life and no one wants to talk about all she's been through...no one until she meets Jacobo, the drunk driver's brother-in-law. It is through her friendship and subsequent relationship with him that Leah comes back to the land of the living.

It is predominantly a story about forgiveness. Ms. Orcutt handles the storyline very well and her characters truly come to life. It is a lesson in letting go, forgiving, and moving on.

Deals with tough subjects in a very sensitive way--drunk driving fatal accident and inter-racial relations. Smooth, steady, focused writing that keeps the reader hooked and staying with the story to the end. Vivid descriptions. Poignant scenes. Thorough treatment of pain on all sides of a tragic situation. Marked my book throughout at the beautifully crafted phrases, imagery, and themes.

The story is about Leah Travers. Her, her husband Perry and their 2 year-old son Galen are traveling home from Leah's parents house. Perry is angry with Leah because her parents always try to run things and Leah lets them do it. They take a different exit and notice some older lady who needs help with her tire. Perry wants to stop and help. That's when tragedy strikes. She is left with a heart full of grief and not much will to live. Until she meets Jacobo Martinez. He is a believer with stong faith. A big yet gentle man who also happens to be the brother-in-law of the the man who killed her family.

I thought the book was very truthful in how you would react, things you would feel etc. It seemed natural. The characters seemed real to me. Jacobo was a hero every women would love. I highly recommend this book.

Orcutt's characters became part of my world from the very first pages. The author did a wonderful job of drawing the reader into the story and keeping the interest going throughout. Her characters were real and believable. Deft handling of a difficult subject, and a unique romantic angle on the topic. I found it hard to put this book down.

Orcutt, whose westerns, The Fugitive Heart (1997) and its sequel, The Hidden Heart (1998), are among the best in the business, continues her quiet, searching manner in the contemporary problem romance, The Living Stone. It's the sad story of Leah Travers, who walls off emotions like a stone when her husband and two-year-old son are killed in a car crash. Things change, though slowly and with great pain, when Leah meets Jacobo Martinez, the brother-in-law to the drunken driver who ran her family down. Orcutt uses stock romance elements but has a superior sense of characterization and scene-building. For instance, moments prior to the accident, Leah and her husband argue, making the accident itself all the more affecting. And Orcutt develops the drunk driver's family with great care and compassion; they are as devastated as Leah.