Wandering Hearts [Paperback]

Donna J. Grisanti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

On the cusp of World War II, Ranie Foster buries her beloved grandmother and flees impending marriage. She forges a new life with intertwined with three strangers. Their lie-sealed odyssey encounters love, racism, natural disaster and murder.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Donna J. Grisanti is a fiction writer based in Tucson, Arizona. Wandering Hearts, her first novel, was written over a five year period. A former senior nursing administrator, she now divides her time between writing, family and church.

Product Details

• Paperback: 644 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Publishing Corp. (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970886098
• ISBN-13: 978-0970886095
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,047,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Deep characters and a vivid story., March 29, 2007

By 

SciFiChick "The SciFiChick" (Fishers, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wandering Hearts (Paperback)

When I received Wandering Hearts, by Donna J. Grisanti in the mail, I was immediately intimidated by the size of the book. But after the first few chapters, I had been pulled into the story.

At the end of the Great Depression, 18 year old Raine Foster changes her and her young cousin's lives forever when she decides to fake their deaths and run away from an impending marriage to a cruel man. Throughout their journey, they come across many trials and hardships. And they meet many friendly faces as well as dangerous men. With little to no money, things seem hopeless, but help comes from the strangest places.

Grisanti goes to a tremendous effort to give depth to everyone of her many characters. In spite of the colorful story and characters, the narrative remains plausible and realistic for the time period.

Dealing with civil rights issues, love, death, faith, and other heavy subjects, this book could easily be marketed as Christian fiction as well as general fiction.

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful people watching, March 25, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wandering Hearts (Paperback)

This is a well-written cross between chic lit and a Christian historical novel. A must-read for the history of a group of people who band together for better or worse, even though they aren't tethered by familial relations.

This epic novel centers on Raine Foster, who loses her parents and grandmother during the early 1940s, somewhere in the Southwest, where apples can grow, but it still rains and snows occasionally. We never really know where the characters are in the scheme of the States, but that is the only distraction in the novel. Raine Foster takes in her two cousins whom her grandmother agreed to take when their parents died. To avoid an unpleasant marriage to a money-hoarding drunk, 18-year-old Raine Foster and her two younger cousins plan their death and disappear to a town miles from where they were.

On the hobo path they run into Touhy, a gentleman who takes them under his wing. When he realizes he's getting to close to Raine, he disappears, but comes right back to check on her and the children. He finally gets them established, pretending to be all related as cousins, working on an apple farm with China Joe. He's a Chinese man who never was given the chance to tell anyone his real name. They thrive there as workers. But when Pearl Harbor is attacked, the townspeople react to China Joe's Asian ancestry with anger and fire. Thankfully, not much is burned and the story of Touhy and the Foster's lie of being cousins is protected.

Touhy enlists for the fight of his life, leaving Raine to marry Chen Yoa Goa, who is actually in love with the town's wealthiest daughter, Mayleen Walters. Raine encourages the relationship between her husband and Walters, even though Raine suffers with the fact that she loves Touhy and gets no physical intimacy with Chen. Along with the Fosters and Walters are the O. Martins, a black couple who have served the Walters for years. Through drama, death, pregnancy and hidden agendas, the apple farm thrives and all turns out well when Walters dies, as does her brother Arlen.

Armchair Interviews says: This is an amazing book of courage and tenacity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars didn't want to put it down..., March 21, 2007

By 

Marc S. Colera - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wandering Hearts (Paperback)

I just got this book on a lark, because I read a lot of historical fiction. At first I was intimidated by the length - over 600 pages - but the story and characters are so full that I ended up wishing it were longer. Its about a young woman in the 1930s who runs away from her home, because she is nearly forced to marry the richest man in town who is a drunk and abusive. Before she can get out, she has two orphaned cousins given to her. She takes the kids and plans her escape. On her way to their new town and life, she gets shot and beat up, but still manages to keep it all together. This is because she is befriended by a fellow traveler, Touhy. He stays with them for their safety and they become close friends as they settle in to the new town. The war takes him away, but not before they are taken in and work for a man with an apple orchard. While Touhy is gone, there's all kind of things going on in this small Southern town: feuds, drunkenness, gossip, and murder. I enjoyed the character of the town doctor and his struggle to overcome the loss of his wife and child. I also like how the author deals with racism in this era. It's really a nice story. I laughed and cried and didn't want to put it down.