Review by Booklist Review
Soap operas may be struggling on television, but they're alive and well in Meacham's fiction. As with the best-selling Roses (2010), her latest is set in Texas, where the small town of Kersey is typically obsessed with the fortunes of its high-school football squad. The action centers on the team's standouts and best friends, Trey Don (TD) Hall and John Caldwell, and Cathy Benson, an orphan the boys took under their wing in childhood. Trey and John both love Cathy, but Cathy only returns Trey's affection. To detail all the twists and turns of this love triangle would require another novel. In short: accidental murder and cover-up; a case of the mumps that leads to undisclosed sterility; a surprise pregnancy; lies, deceit, heartbreak, and more killing. For good measure, John becomes a priest, which plays out a bit like The Thorn Birds. As dictated by the sudser format, the plot drives characters' behavior, rather than vice versa, and dialogue frequently serves double duty as exposition. It's all very over-the-top, which, as with any soap opera, is the story's greatest appeal.--Wetli, Patty Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Meacham (Roses) explores a small-town love triangle against the backdrop of Texas football in her overblown latest. Since childhood, Trey Don "TD" Hall and best friend John Caldwell have cared primarily for football and one another. But when recently orphaned Catherine Ann Benson moves to town to live with her grandmother, the boys are immediately drawn to her. At first, the three sixth-graders are just fast friends, but after adolescence sets in, their relationship deepens and complicates. Despite the boys' stellar high school football careers and Catherine Ann's equally sterling academic record, their future plans are fumbled thanks to a botched prank, a secret infatuation, and an accidental pregnancy, all of which will have consequences stretching far into the future. Spanning nearly 30 years, the novel seems unsure of its intentions: is it a romance, a sports saga, or a murder mystery? Most jarring is the novel's unevenness of tone; a detailed description of autoerotic asphyxiation feels out of place compared to rosy-hued scenes of young love, and the poorly-plotted murder mystery is an awkward and unnecessary appendage to what could otherwise have been a satisfying drama. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
In 2008, Trey Don (TD) Hall calls an old friend who hasn't heard from him in 22 years. TD and John Caldwell were once best buddies. The third member of their tight-knit group was Catherine Ann Benson, orphaned at 11, and sent to Kersey, TX, where the two boys took her under their wings. In their teens, the boys were football stars in a town that lived and died for football. The three remained inseparable until an unexpected illness, a teen prank gone wrong, and misperceptions changed the courses of their lives. Now, TD plans to reveal the secrets that tore them apart. VERDICT- Meacham's (Roses) second sprawling novel is as large as Texas itself. The author skillfully manipulates multiple themes of friendship, loss, guilt, and the possibility of redemption. Readers who love epic sagas that span a couple of generations will enjoy this soap opera tale of young love, betrayal, and living a life that might not have a happy ending. [See Prepub Alert, 12/18/11.]-Lesa Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
