"STONE CREEK" by Victoria Lustbader (B+)

This gripping and heartfelt story of love and loss takes place in a small upstate New York town where a local carpenter remains in a state of mourning for his beloved wife long after her untimely death. She had been the daughter of one of the wealthy big city business types who live up in the mountains in their fancy second homes. Now he suffers the emotionally explosive consequences because his former in-laws unfairly blame him for their daughter's death. They hate him and everything that he stands for, and yet they are forced into an uneasy alliance because of their desire to maintain contact with his young son, who is all that they have left of their beloved daughter.

His many caring friends sympathize with his in-law problems, but their more immediate concern is for him to pick up the pieces of his life and move on. The local girls don't interest him, for he knows them too well, but then sparks fly when he catches a glimpse of a stunning woman in a local market. The feeling is mutual, for she is a lonely wife who is experiencing marital problems and has been left alone for the summer while her ambitious and hard-driving husband travels across the country on a business venture. He doesn't yet know that she is married, nor does he know that she is another well kept wife who also lives up in the mountains in a fancy second home.

Many other novels have dealt with the same theme of love reaching across differing social and economic classes, but few have done this with such rich characterizations as are found here. With its heavy emphasis on passionate desire and descriptive sensuality, the author occasionally wanders into soap opera territory. However, this remains a well-written novel with powerful emotions featured in heartwarming and occasionally wrenching abundance.

This story almost leaps off the page with personality. Shortly after picking up the book, I soon realized that all of the characters were getting under my skin. This is one of the best things that can happen when I read a book. It makes putting it down very difficult but picking it back up such a joy. Every book should create vivid personalities like this novel.

Lustbader starts the story off from the diverse perspective of each of its major participants. At the time they do not yet know each other and there is no reason for them to meet since they come from different worlds. The initial meetings are brief and fleeting, as if the author wants to tease us with what might, or maybe might not, occur at some point in the future. All of us have seen a stranger across a room or on the street and have felt that spark of attraction. These feelings are universal and Lustbader captures them in a very realistic manner.

Thereafter, her characters grapple with all of the possible choices that they can make after they meet. In fact, Lustbader offers an interview as well as a discussion section at the end of the story for book groups who may wish to mull over the direction that each of her characters eventually choose to make for their life.

It seems to be impossible to mention Victoria Lustbader without also mentioning that she is the wife of Eric van Lustbader, the world famous author of more than two dozen novels. (There must be some serious creative energy flowing in their two houses located in New York City and out on the Hamptons of Long Island!)

After spending half of her professional life reviewing literary works by others for various publishing houses, Victoria Lustbader finally launched her own career as an author. A decade-long literary interregnum spent toiling the fields for the Nature Conservancy only served to plant the seeds for her return to the creative side of the fence in the literary world. Her first effort, "Hidden," took a long six years to reach completion and was only published in 2006. Obviously she has honed her craft in order to get this effort out in the much shorter time frame of just two years.

The plot is common, but the characters are not in a love story where Danny Malloy, an uneducated but brilliant carpenter, proves to be the perfect match for Tara Jamison, the daughter of snobby parents who live up in the mountains with the other country club types. Tara falls in love with Danny upon first sight. She clearly sees what all of his friends already know, which is that Danny has a heart of gold and that he will always treat her well. Her parents want a pedigree marriage and a big city career for her, but she rebels for love and life in a small town where true wealth is found in the small pleasures of daily living.

Their marriage is a great success, but, sadly, their happiness wasn't to last. After just five years of marriage, Tara collapses into Danny's arms one evening and with shocking swiftness she dies on the spot. Danny has spent the last year mourning her loss with only the joy of their son, Caleb, filling his heart with joy. He remains emotionally locked down, much to the concern of his many friends in Stone Creek.

Meanwhile, down in New York City in their apartment overlooking Central Park, Paul Spencer, the managing partner of the prestigious Chaikin-Gibbs law firm, prepares to leave on a business trip which will further cement his already lofty reputation as an ace lawyer.

Lily, his younger wife, finds herself frustrated and lonely in a relationship where she has sacrificed everything that she wants, especially children, while her egotistical husband masterfully manipulates her and everyone else in his orbit to do exactly as he pleases. She is looking forward to spending a summer at their house on the mountain in Stone Creek doing what she wants to do for a change. Everything seems so simple until the image of that young man in the grocery store sets her fantasies running full throttle. 2008, HarperCollins, 366 pages.