Once in a Lifetime

November 30, 2009
Kelly (What She Wants
), whose novels routinely hit #1 on bestseller lists in Ireland, sets her seventh heartbreaker in Kenny's Department Store in the small Irish town of Ardagh. Kenny's provides the captivating center for a sprawling saga that reads like three books slowly tied together in which a collection of women discover their inner strength through adversity. Star Bluestone is a psychically gifted artist pondering her lost love for David Kenny, a poet who left her to run the family business. He married Ingrid Fitzgerald instead, who becomes a famous TV journalist. Ingrid is shattered when David suddenly dies of a heart attack and then shocked to learn about his romantic past with Star and his all too recent affair with the much younger Steffi. Into the mix, Kelly weaves other stories, including those of Ingrid's best friend, image guru Marcella Schmidt, and Kenny employee Charlie Fallon. The magical Star is the treasure of the book, heads above the rest of the conventional cast. She only appears a few times, yet becomes the lodestone for this poignant reminder of how “once-in-a-lifetime-love” transforms lives.