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When six-year-old Adelaide Piper finally learns to swim, she hears her father tell her grandfather that she has determination. It’s the first time she’s heard the word, and she’s not sure what it means, but it’s a word that perfectly describes her character, both as a child and as a young adult. Growing up, Adelaide feels stifled in her southern industrial hometown and yearns to escape. Although she has received a full scholarship to the University of South Carolina, she wants to travel farther afield. After her graduation with the Williamstown High class of 1989, a minor scholarship allows her to attend a small liberal arts college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
College is not what Adelaide expected. Her clothes and hair are out of style, she fails to get the hoped-for poetry workshop she’d counted on, and a fraternity hazing ends in tragedy. Then a romantic evening with a graduate turns violent and Adelaide’s hopeful dreams are shattered.
Adelaide returns home the summer following her freshman year for debutante teas and her presentation to society. Her parents and her younger sister have problems of their own, and Adelaide has withdrawn into herself. Shannon, Adelaide’s “Jesus freak” friend, comforts and encourages her to accept Christ. Adelaide’s journey to conversion is hesitant, and when she finally makes her decision it is convincing.
Hart’s characters are well developed and true to life. Many painful subjects are raised, including divorce, drug use, abortion, anorexia, and date rape. I enjoyed Adelaide’s pieces of poetry as much as the novel itself. I found this to be an original and effective way for the author to reveal the protagonist’s inner character to the reader. I will look for more books by this author.
Reviewed by Marie DisBrow
for The Road to Romance
June 24, 2006
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