True Blue [Mass Market Paperback]

Luanne Rice (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2002

The story of two sisters and the boy next door...

The acclaimed author of Firefly Beach and other New York Times bestsellers, Luanne Rice explores the powerful bonds that connect old friends, and the joy of life’s unexpected second chances. Now, returning once more to the Connecticut beach town at the center of many of her most beloved novels, she touches our hearts with a spellbinding story of a love lost--and saved--by the power of what was always meant to be . . .

True Blue

Schoolteacher Rumer Larkin never felt the need to stray from Hubbard’s Point. Rich with legends of seafaring spirits and lost treasures, the rustic village still echoes with the memories of Rumer’s past--even after those she loved have left. But now, so many summers after Zeb Mayhew broke her heart, he has returned with his teenage son, and Rumer knows her quiet life will never be the same again.

Zeb has come back to hoping to reconnect with his son, with the past and all its mistakes. Suddenly facing Rumer again, Zeb discovers where he belongs. He could never forget the girl who used to climb onto his roof with him to watch the stars. But neither Zeb nor Rumer knows if it’s too late to do more than regret the path not taken--or if every path leads us back to the one true love of our life . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An earnest and affecting portrait of life in the magical seaside town of Hubbards Point, Conn., Luanne Rice's True Blue finds childhood friends Rumer Larkin and Zeb Mayhew torn apart by a seemingly insurmountable betrayal Zeb married Rumer's older sister, Elizabeth, instead of her. Now, after a 20-year absence, a bitter divorce and a life-altering expedition aboard a space station, Zeb has returned to the Point seeking forgiveness and maybe something more. The themes of sisterhood and friendship that appear here are common threads in Rice's novels (Safe Harbor, etc.), as is the sense that there's an ethereal force guiding the lives of the Points inhabitants. With its graceful prose, full-bodied characters and atmospheric setting, this uplifting and enchanting tale is likely to become a beachside staple.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Rice returns to the captivating Connecticut setting of Safe Harbor [BKL D 15 01], where Rumer Larkin, a 40-year-old veterinarian deeply attached to the creatures of the earth, remains rooted in her hometown, while her best friend from childhood, Zeb Mayhew, has his eyes on the stars. Just when their friendship was turning into an adult passion, Zeb broke Rumer's heart by falling in love with her flamboyant older sister instead. They married and he became an astronaut. Now divorced, Zeb is returning home with Rumer's nephew, Michael, hoping to get close to Rumer, and to reestablish a bond with his 17 year-old son. Rumer is delighted to see her nephew, but dealing with Zeb is harder than she expected it to be. Is she ready to risk devastating heartache again, and will her sister interfere? Rice, as always, provides her readers with a delightful love story filled with the subtle nuances of the human heart. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553583980
• ISBN-13: 978-0553583984
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,947 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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hooray for Luanne Rice!!, July 30, 2002

By 

Laura Dawson (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

When Luanne Rice is on the familiar territory of the shore she so obviously adores or stories of the fierce love of family, no one can beat her. She continues to weave together characters from previous novels, including(but not limited to!)Firefly
Beach and Safe Harbor.
Zeb and Rumer, best of friends as children and in love/almost lovers as young adults; until Rumer's beautiful older sister came between them. Twenty years later, the now divorced Zeb returns home, and....... a great story commences!
Luanne Rice has a gift when it comes to writing about the love between families, and no one writes a more grounded love story than she. Bittersweet and true; I can only hope that she returns again and again to these shores and the people who live there. I can't believe they let this one out as a paperback! ;)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Be Ready to Suspend Your Disbelief, August 13, 2002

By 

Carolyn Bright "Motor City Reader" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read the book description and reader reviews, you already know the basic plot of the story: boy (Zeb) loves girl (Rumer), girl loses boy to sister (Elizabeth), girl and boy rediscover each other, even though boy has a troubled 15 year old son (Michael) with girl's sister who is his ex-wife. I'm sorry but I just couldn't get past the many requirements for me to suspend my disbelief to really enjoy this book. If you grew up in a halfway normal family, you may have the same issue.

First, you have to believe that Rumer and Zeb would entertain the thought of getting back together after Zeb's divorce to Rumer's sister, Elizabeth. Next you have to believe that the girls' father would welcome the man who destroyed the sisters' relationship back to town with an open invitation to go after Rumer. Is is just my dad who would have greeted him with a shotgun? Then you have to believe that Rumer hasn't met any other eligible men worthy of her love in all the years that her sister was married to Zeb. You also must believe that even though Rumer's and Zeb's love was so strong that it could overcome the quasi-incestuous (queasy incestuous for me) implications of the plot, it wasn't strong enough to overcome the flimsy obstacle that Elizabeth concocted to break them up in the first place. I won't give it away, but it is a misunderstanding that could have been cleared up with a phone call. Since Rumer and Zeb are next door neighbors, they could just have easily have discussed the issue in person. Finally, you have to believe that even though Elizabeth is a famous and talented actress, she is also a borderline psychotic sociopath (okay, maybe that's not such a stretch).

I've deducted a star from the rating because I would expect to see this family on the Jerry Springer show, not in the pages of a sweet contemporary romance. Maybe it's just my six sisters and I who look at each other's husbands and boyfriends as brothers, with all the social boundaries that the relationship implies. I think Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen sang it best: "Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister, and Lord help the sister that comes between me and my man!"

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, but with some oddities too, August 20, 2002

By 

Vicki Hughes "Miss Vicki" (Sparta, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: True Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked up the paperback a couple weeks ago, and noticed the cover states "First Time In Print" and I wondered about why the book may have skipped the hardcover stage. As a fan of LuAnne Rice's work I found the story easy to fall into,and the characters interesting, but the wackiness on pages 98-99 threw me. One moment a character is called Michael, and the next moment he's called Colin. Then suddenly he's Michael again. I kept going back over it to see if someone else had come on the scene or not!? Apparently one advantage of printing a hardback prior to going paperback is more thorough editing?! Strangely, the amazon description also describes the main character as "Schoolteacher, Rumer Larkin", who is in fact not a teacher at all, but a veterinarian.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying the story isn't good, but if I was LuAnne Rice I'd be wondering what my agent and editors were doing.

If you've read any of Luanne Rice's other books, you will enjoy the references to other characters, and feel like you are among family once again. Read True Blue, and enjoy a nice summer read, but be willing to overlook some stuff.