Sandcastles [Hardcover]

Luanne Rice (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

Painter Honor Sullivan has made a life for herself and her three daughters Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia at Star of the Sea Academy on the magical Connecticut shore. Here she teaches art at the convent school s beautiful seaside campus, over which Honor s sister-in-law, mother superior Bernadette Ignatius, keeps a benevolent and watchful eye. No one could have foreseen the day rebellious Regis would come home with the stunning news that she was getting married. Nor could anyone have guessed how that sudden announcement would soon change all their
lives forever.

Eleven years ago, Honor thought she had the perfect home, the perfect love, the perfect life. Then her husband, brilliant photographer and sculptor John Sullivan, broke her heart and tore their little family apart. Now, hearing of Regis s impending marriage, John has ended his self-imposed exile and returned to the family he s always loved more than anything on earth. What he finds is one daughter still hurting over his abandonment, another who barely remembers him, and a third who may be in more trouble than anyone knows. And then there is Honor herself and a passion that may have been interrupted but that has never waned.

Some things, like sandcastles, don t survive the changing tides. But love, family, and friendship just as fragile have a way of standing against anything. It will take nothing short of a miracle to heal the rift between father and daughter, husband and wife, the past and the present but a miracle is exactly what is in the works at Star of the Sea Academy. The only question is: Do you believe?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Given the title, July 4 pub date and settings on the Connecticut shore and County Cork coast, readers may expect the consummate beach feast from bestselling Rice (Summer of Roses). She almost delivers: all the ingredients for a clambake are here, but Rice doesn't bother to light the fire. Honor Sullivan is a woman torn apart. Her famous earthworks artist husband, John, has spent six years in an Irish prison for killing a man who attacked their then 14-year-old daughter, Regis. Now he's back at Star of the Sea Academy, the convent and school in Connecticut where the Sullivans live and teach"or rather, is in the area, but hesitant to return home and face Honor's ire at being effectively abandoned. His notes find their way to Honor, perhaps via Sister Bernadette Ignatius, who runs the community and is John's sister, and Auntie Bernie to John and Honor's daughters. Or perhaps they come via Tom Kelly, still in love with Bernie and bone-loyal to John. Add a little moonlight mysticism, Regis's impending bad marriage and a red-haired nurse given up for adoption the same year Tom and red-haired Bernie went off to Ireland to trace family roots. If only Rice seemed to care. If only she didn't craft an entire paragraph out of the word "Moonstones," which will have fans wistfully recalling nuanced Rice fiction like Blue Moon. (July 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Honor Sullivan travels from Connecticut to Ireland with her three young daughters to join her artist husband. Also an artist, Honor is worried about her marriage and her husband's extreme methods. John builds a sculpture on the rugged coast that turns into a nightmare for the family as John and his oldest daughter face a tormentor, and John is imprisoned for six years. When he is released, he returns to his beloved family and the Connecticut shore and finds that much has changed. Honor is scared of her reaction to John. She has worked hard to raise her family and teach art. As they struggle to find a way to reconnect as a family, more trauma ensues that will either bind them or drive them apart. With deft style, Rice delicately handles heartbreak and redemption, once again pleasing her fans with her latest story about the inhabitants of her beloved shore town. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739469096
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804195
• ASIN: 0553804197
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.6 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, most recently The Silver Boat. Her books, including Cloud Nine and Dream Country, often center on love, family, nature and the sea, and have been translated into twenty-four languages. A number of Rice's novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations of Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells, and Beach Girls as a summer drama series for Lifetime Television. She has contributed a theatrical piece to the new off Broadway play Motherhood Out Loud. Rice loves nature and frequently writes about it. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City and Old Lyme, Connecticut, in the house where she spent all her childhood summers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not One of Rice's Strongest, But Not Bad., July 21, 2006

By 

JJ Stark (Cicero, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sandcastles (Hardcover)

I've read nearly every one of Luanne Rice's novels since CLOUD NINE. Nearly every one of these has similar themes with stories and characters that either grab you & keep you turning the pages wanting more, or they fall flat with little enthusiasm for the ending. SANDCASTLES fell into the latter category. I just don't think it was one of Luanne Rice's better stories.

I still think when it comes to Woman's Fiction and Love Stories, Rice is one of the best, but something seems to be getting old here. Many of her recent novels feel like recycled material with similar characters and plot lines

SANDCASTLES seemed promising before its release, but once I started reading it, I found it very predictable with characters that I didn't really care that much about. I never really connected with Honor or felt the love she once she had for John. Nothing really happened that made me want to see them work things out and/or "live happily ever after." There were times in fact, when I thought Honor was just being plain selfish or even a "B**CH. Her reasons for falling out of love with John weren't really explored and/or explained. It's almost as if she just woke up one day and realized that John wasn't really the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

As for Regis, I kinda knew from the very first chapter which direction her story was going to go. The ending didn't surprise me and I wondered why it took so long to get to that point. As for her engagement, it seemed like a ploy to keep readers guessing with an extremely weak conclusion.

The supporting characters weren't as strong in SANDCASTLES either. Many times, Luanne Rice uses characters from previous novels to fill in the "neighborhood." There was only the briefest mention of previous characters and I don't even remember what relevance (if any) they had to the story. The characters of Bernie and Tom were far more interesting than Honor and John and I cared more about their love story than I did Honor and John's. Although it too was fairly predictable. I would rather have read & learned more about their love story and journey rather than the one readers were given.

Don't get me wrong here, SANDCASTLES isn't exactly the worse novel I've read lately, but it's definitely not one of the better ones. It's certainly one of Luanne Rice's weaker releases. Perhaps she needs to explore fresh material with new pllotlines and a variety of characters. Some writers stick to what they do and know best, and for a while, Luanne Rice was on a winning streak. But her last couple of novels just fell a little flat for me. Had any of these been the first Luanne Rice novel I had read, I don't think they would have been strong enough to keep me coming back each year. With previous works such as CLOUD NINE, FOLLOW THE STARS HOME and BEACH GIRLS, readers know that Luanne Rice is capable of writing beautiful stories about the many loves in a woman's life (husband, boyfriend, children, parents & friends). We just need to read some new material with stronger characters and storylines that capture and holds readers' attention. I'm looking forward to future releases with high hopes of improvement.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting family drama, June 28, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Sandcastles (Hardcover)

After six years in an Irish prison for killing the man who assaulted his fourteen years old daughter Regis, renowned earthworks artist John Sullivan is freed. He returns to Connecticut, but is hesitant to go home to the nearby Star of the Sea Academy and convent where his family works and lives because he fears his beloved spouse Honor will reject him for the harm he caused her and their three daughters.

He turns to his sibling Sister Bernadette Ignatius and his best friend Tom Kelly to serve as communicators between him and his wife as John worries that Regis is heading down the aisle into a bad marriage while his offspring wants him at her wedding. His other two daughters do not openly greet him either as one feels he abandoned her and her siblings and the other does not know him as she was too young when he left. However all that is topped by his trepidation that his beloved Honor will not take him back; if he can find the courage and get her alone amongst the Connecticut Moonstones perhaps the magic will surface for he believes it remains alive just dormant.

This is an interesting family drama due to the differing reactions of the three siblings as one desperately wants her dad back in her life; another wants him totally out of her life; and the third is unsure what she wants when it comes to him. John knows he has made mistakes that he can never atone for, but prays for a second chance with his beloved fearsome female foursome. Though the solution seems too simplistic, contemporary fans will enjoy this second chance at love.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Predictable melodrama, September 12, 2006

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sandcastles (Random House Large Print) (Hardcover)

It's been six years since patriarch John Sullivan had the freedom to spend time with his family. Jailed in Ireland after pleading guilty for killing the man who attacked his art and his daughter, the family returned to Connecticut and his wife Honor broke off communication with him. Her plans to seek a divorce are cut short when he suddenly reappears just in time for daughter Regis' upcoming wedding.

John is a scarred and tormented man. Always a risk taker, Honor knew it was only a matter of time that one of his many jaunts would fracture the family. Now he is trying desperately to reconnect with the daughter who missed him terribly, the one who prayed for a spiritual sign, the one that barely remembers him, and the wife he loves with all his heart, while she holds him at arm's length. His sister, who happens to be a mother superior at the local convent, is his greatest ally. Growing up, Bernie, John, Honor, and Tom Kelly were the four musketeers. Until separate events in Ireland altered all of their lives.

I had a hard time getting into this story - mostly because it was completely predictable and had few surprises. Within a handful of pages, it is clear where the story is headed, and it takes soooo long to get there. Honor was a hard heroine to sympathize with; she just came off as cold and selfish, which made it difficult to understand how she and John could be soul mates. About the only redeeming quality of this novel was the vivid and lyrical manner with which Rice describes the sunsets, meadows, and craggy beaches of both Ireland and Connecticut. And the obvious ambiguous ending leaves the door open for a sequel - a shameless device that many authors, particularly Rice continues to practice in her novels. If the story cannot be summed up in one novel, perhaps the story is not worth telling...