Leave It to Max

by Lori Handeland

Sometimes good things go bump in the night. To Garrett Stark, bestselling horror novelist, Savannah is the place his career began. So when a deadline looms and he still has only a couple of sentences... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373710046
• ISBN13: 9780373710041
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Harlequin Books
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Irreverent and humorous -- Very highly recommended

Max is a remarkable eight-year-old boy whose imagination and clumsy feet keep him in trouble. Max doesn't mean to forget he's grounded when he wanders off to follow the wind or a whim, he just forgets. Livy loves her son, but doesn't have a clue as to how to cultivate the magic that lies within her child. By trying to keep him safe from broken bones she crushes his flights of imagination. In trying to make him like other little boys, she fights against what makes him special -- his uniqueness. His father shares the same uniqueness. So when Max unknowingly brings his father home, after almost nine years of leaving Livy, his mother must confront the magic her son and former lover share, accepting the past and her own vulnerabilities.Where once Garret knew Livy intimately and completely understood her, now she simply leaves him confused. She was the first person to offer him love, and not knowing how to love back, or believing himself worthy, he had run. But from the first moment Garret saw Max, he knew there was something special about the child. There had been an instant connection, a deep recognition of himself within the boy -- "perhaps that magic he and Max believed in so deeply." When Garret came to Savannah, Georgia, he thought he pursued the muse that inspired his previous books. Now he's coming to understand he needs so much more.Lori Handeland's marvelous voice combines irreverence, romance, and amusement to create a memorable read. These richly developed characters combine eccentricity and realism to keep the reader amused even as their foibles present their hidden fears and vulnerabilities. Equally remarkable are the wonderful secondary characters, each carefully crafted, especially the frequently jailed grandma and the stolen goose, which kept me in stitches. Very highly recommended.