Katherine Stone
Stone, Katherine - BED OF ROSES (Warner - 1998) (4+)
This is not a typical romance in that it doesn't start at point A, proceed to point B and so on. It opens with the heroine, Cassandra Winter, fighting for her life in Intensive Care after a savage beating. Enter the hero, Chase Tessier, who is asked if he is family. He announces to the assembled company that, yes, he is family. He is her husband and has been for the past eight years. No one, not her agent, nor her lover, nor the
detective investigating her attack—not anyone else assembled in ICU knew that Cass was married, especially to the well-known vintner of Tessier wines.
Stone tells the first part of Chase and Cassie's story in a flashback to the wonderful summer eight years prior that Cass spent at Domaine Tessier with Chase, and his sister Hope, and the housekeeper, Eleanor. Then she uses the same technique to tell about Hope and her meeting with Nick Wolfe at a camp for privileged young women, which is also a fat farm. The reader initially wonders what the first story has to do with the second, but soon finds out. A third element of the story is Chase and Hope's father, Victor, and his relationship with a local artist, Jane. The last part of the book is a straightforward story of the three couples, trying to solve the mystery of who attacked Cass and why and where Nick fits into it all.
My thoughts throughout the book were, "what a multilayered, complex story," but I enjoyed it very much. Cass the wounded Tinkerbell, as Chase thinks of her. Hope, with no self-confidence, and Chase, very much the man of the house and the master vintner but not arrogant and overbearing. Eleanor is a combination of fairy godmother and Mrs. Claus. And Stone uses the language in such a beautiful way, with lyrical descriptions of people and places. Her words are word pictures so the reader can actually see what is being described. A beautiful sunlit meadow with Hope dancing and Nick watching with Molly, his little black Cocker spaniel. Or a wounded Cass in her fluffy robe and slippers and bald head, trying to make her way back to her room unaided.
I had to read this book twice in succession, not because it is a difficult book to read, but because I tend to skim and this book should not be skimmed. There is much information given in each sentence and to miss it is to miss a vital part of the story. While I might say the style is not for everyone, I would still urge everyone to read it. It is a wonderful, heartwarming, mostly gentle story of some very troubled people who triumph over adversity. ~Beth Coogan for Bookbug on the Web
Stone, Katherine - HOME AT LAST (Warner - 1999) (5)
Katherine Stone has written an awesome book—complex,
compelling, and totally unforgettable.
Lt. Lucas Hunter is a master hostage negotiator who hunts down murderers. When a serial killer dubbed "Lady Killer" starts calling news anchorwoman, Galen Chandler, Lucas decides she needs protection and moves her into his home. There they make amazing and sometimes heartwarming discoveries about each other. Lucas has had his apartment decorated entirely in white—not a warm white, but the blue-white of snow. In contrast, he is a dark, haunted man who dresses all in black. Galen is a flame, with unruly red hair and porcelain skin. The dichotomy is there—his ice to her fire—and Galen gradually melts Lucas' reserve.
No one can really do justice to the majesty of Stone's talent. Her descriptions are so vivid that I saw the things and events she created, and she uses the device of repetition throughout HOME AT LAST so that those descriptions embed themselves in readers' minds. While she doesn't exactly present the gory detail of the crimes mentioned, I was horrified, nonetheless, at the brutality of them. To say any more about HOME AT LAST would give too much away. Stone is a technically brilliant, master storyteller, who made me feel like I was living the events of her novel. And her phrasing, while not to everyone's taste, made this a one-sitting, page-turning read for me. ~Beth Coogan for Bookbug on the Web
Stone, Katherine - MIDNIGHT CLEAR, A (Warner - 1999) (5)
Katherine Stone has written a shimmering, hypnotic story of two wounded souls who heal each other. Jace was born into rejection, and as a teen he found the love he yearned for, the love that evoked his gentleness and gratitude—only to lose everything because he hadn't been vigilant enough, or so he believed. Julia, too, had been born into rejection, but she was placed within loving arms and grew strong and sweet. Even so, she suffered much loss. Then malice and shallow vengeance put Julia and Jace side-by-side in a plane flying toward England and the painful Christmases they had assigned themselves. As the couple began a conversation, they could read the hurt in each other.
In London, the healing started. Jace and Julia were exquisitely tender and careful as they faced their Christmas pain together, transforming it into delicately colored snowflake and angel ornaments. They touched, without fear and out of desire and true loving generosity, and like other innocents, gave each other their greatest gifts and made their chosen sacrifices. The lovely, lonely woman told Jace of her sorrow, and he saw her and those she had loved through her eyes, as well as through her art—amid all the ethereal colors that were her world. He touched Julia, but he was still lost in a fog of regret and guilt, refusing to burden her with his unworthy love. She warmed and wakened in their Christmas union, but accepted his forever good-bye because that was what she believed he needed. They were both right and both wrong.
Jace went to the war zone where he could help and heal the victims battered by modern guns and ancient hatreds. Julia went to Seattle, the "Emerald City," where she would create a new life for herself. But they didn't leave each other in spirit. When Jace was kidnapped and tortured, Julia's spirit followed him, and in her dreams she saw his captivity. He knew, from their dream time together, that she carried a most precious gift from him and for him.
Jace's past and the malice of war had robbed him of the glowing joy he'd once known, creating a dark danger that Julia felt, too. They both suffered, despite the beautifully colored images Julia created while she waited to find out their fates. Just as Jace was freed from his war prison, he had to rescue Julia from the evil that had poisoned his past and now was erupting in their lives.
Katherine Stone is a physician, which clearly comes across in the knowledgeable way she writes about illness and people's reactions to it, as well as grief with its psychological impact and strange ways of healing. She is also a superb storyteller, using a rhythmic flow of language and a strong sense of color and magic to mesmerize her audience. Reading A MIDNIGHT CLEAR is an addictive and indulgent treat. ~Joan Vinall-Cox for Bookbug on the Web
Stone, Katherine - THIEF OF HEARTS (Warner Hardcover - 1999) (4+)
There is no villain in this story, unless you consider lies to be the villain. Those lies brought about the estrangement between Patrick Falconer, heart and trauma surgeon, and his fraternal twin brother, Jesse Falconer, author of erotic thrillers.
Patrick is also Caitlin Taylor's mentor, best friend and surrogate brother. Caitlin is a heart surgeon, a seamstress of damaged hearts. They served their residencies together at Mass General Hospital, where she first learned of Jesse's existence. Now Patrick is dying and needs a bone marrow transplant, and Caitlin is the only one who knows that the perfect donor exists, namely Patrick's twin brother. But will Jesse agree to help? Caitlin is determined to save Patrick, and to that end she decides she must find Jesse and convince him be a donor. There is so much more to THIEF OF HEARTS than this brief synopsis covers. It is Katherine Stone's trademark to produce multilayered, compelling, evocative books and she has done so again in this story about reconciliation, resolution and discovery.
The author does not weigh her books down with excessive description of people and places, but her vivid writing draws the reader into the story. You can picture the fountain in front of the hospital just as Caitlin sees it from her apartment at night. You can feel Caitlin's fear and trepidation as she drives to Jesse's hilltop home. You are there when Patrick massages the heart of a little girl and brings her back to life. This is the mastery of Stone's writing. She involves the reader in the story. One could say THIEF OF HEARTS is a one-sitting read because it is so compelling, but I found I had to take short breaks to absorb everything and prepare to go on reading this wonderful but disturbing book. ~Beth Coogan for Bookbug on the Web
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