Practice Makes Perfect: Serenity House (Harlequin Superromance No. 1066) [Paperback]

Kathryn Shay (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373710666
• ISBN-13: 978-0373710669
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,281,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first 'romance,' a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists - and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path.

Fully intending to pursue her dream of big city lights and success in the literary world, Kathryn took every creative writing class available at the small private women's college she attended in upstate New York. Instead, other dreams took precedence. She met and subsequently married a wonderful guy who'd attended a neighboring school, then completed her practice teaching, a requirement for the education degree she never intended to use. But says Kathryn, "I fell in love with teaching the first day I was up in front of a class, and knew I was meant to do that."

Kathryn went on to build a successful career in the New York state school system, thoroughly enjoying her work with adolescents. But by the early 1990s, she'd again made room in her life for writing. It was then that she submitted her first manuscript to publishers and agents. Despite enduring two years of rejections, she persevered. And on a snowy December afternoon in 1994, Kathryn Shay sold her first book to Harlequin Superromance.

Since that first sale, Kathryn has written twenty-two books for Harlequin, ten mainstream contemporary romances for the Berkley Publishing Group, and two online novellas, which Berkley then published in traditional print format.

Kathryn has become known for her powerful characterizations - readers say they feel they know the people in her books - and her heart-wrenching, emotional writing (her favorite comments are that fans cried while reading her books or stayed up late to finish them). In testament to her skill, the author has had a one of her books serialized in the December 2003 COSMOPOLITAN magazine and has been quoted in PEOPLE and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. She has won five RT BookClub Magazine Reviewers Choice Awards, three Holt Medallions, two Desert Quill Awards, the Golden Leaf Award, and several online accolades.

Even in light of her writing success, that initial love of teaching never wavered for Kathryn. She finished out her teaching career in 2004, retiring from the same school where her career began. These days, she lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. "My life is very full," she reports, "but very happy. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pursue and achieve my dreams."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sympathetic, heart-warming tale -- Very highly recommended, June 16, 2002

By 

C. Penn "WordWeaving" (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: Serenity House (Harlequin Superromance No. 1066) (Paperback)

At seventeen, Paige Kendrick lost her parents and gave her baby up for adoption in the same day. Paige never saw the child, never asked its sex or health; instead, she raised her sister and went on to become a doctor. Now she works as a pediatrician charging high prices to those who can afford her skills; at once distancing herself from girls like the one she once was even as cares for children like the one she lost.

No other doctor has the skills or the compassion of Dr Paige Kendrick, and Ian is determined to sign her onto his program. He also quickly realizes he needs her in his life as much as he needs her skills for the inner-city girls. Unfortunately, Paige builds strong walls around her emotion and her past, refusing to share her heart or her history. But Ian is equally resolute to understand and love this elusive woman.

Author Kathryn Shay has a gift for boldly presenting challenging life situations that offer no easy solutions. This series, Serenity House, brings women together who once shared life in a group home for girls. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT one again exhibits Shay's deep compassion for her flawed, yet marvelously portrayed characters. Loss has taught Paige a bitter lesson only love can cure. Conversely, Ian understands adoption from an entirely different perspective. But his take-charge personality proves equally attractive and abrasive, presenting him with his own challenges in building a relationship with Paige. The result is a sympathetic, heart-warming tale that presents families, adoptions, and love with beauty and sparkle. Paige's younger sister likewise is an interesting and unorthodox character, lending the story a marvelous subplot. Very highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting contemporary romance, June 8, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: Serenity House (Harlequin Superromance No. 1066) (Paperback)

In 1987 in the newly opened Serenity House for Troubled Girls in Hyde Point, New York, pregnant Paige Kendrick and her sister Jade learn their parents died in a motorcycle accident. Paige immediately goes into labor giving birth to a healthy girl. Paige rejects the baby, refusing to even see or touch the newborn.

Fifteen years later Obstetrician Dr. Ian Chandler asks Paige, a pediatrician, to join his new center for unwed mothers and children without any money. At first she refuses as she hates any reminder of where she comes from, but he manipulates Paige into finally joining. As they work close together, they fall in love, but she feels betrayed when he fills out the right to know (RTK) application to locate the infant she gave up years ago.

Readers who take pleasure in an interesting contemporary romance starring a scarred lead protagonist will want to read Kathryn Shay's latest novel, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. The story line focuses on the concept that the child becomes the adult as Paige takes plenty of teenage baggage with her into her present life even though she overcomes much to become a doctor. Though her reaction to Ian's kind gesture of the RTK application that he never forwarded seems overkill some fans will see even that as a defense mechanism of a hurting soul worth reading about.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rich Emotion Sure to Touch the Reader's Heart, June 26, 2002

By 

Jody Allen (US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Practice Makes Perfect: Serenity House (Harlequin Superromance No. 1066) (Paperback)

I have found that there isn't a Shay book yet that hasn't been a wonderful read, each a cut above of what is being offered in the Superromance line from Harlequin.

The premise of this story is very well developed with a delivery fast paced, sure to keep the reader from putting it down to get back to their real life. However, the reader is going to have to like pushy male protagnonists. I felt at times our heroine was the only one expected to reach a growth in character. Ms Shay could have tempered this story giving her hero some unique inner conflict for which our heroine could help him resolve. A bit too one sided at times. Yet, Ms Shay was able to temper the hero's pushiness with rich, emotional compassion as his heroine found her way toward her heart's desire.

I look forward to the next two books in this series, with hope all the women first introduced in this story of the trilogy.will have a chance at finding their own special knight-in-shinning-armour. Of course if anyone can create that special female protagonist who can slay a few dragons of her own to win her prince, Ms Shay has the unique talent to make it happen.