One Week In December

By Holly Chamberlin

Book Overview

In this compelling, heartfelt novel from the bestselling author of Tuscan Holiday and The Friends We Keep, a family reunited for the holidays explores the price of secrets, the power of regret, and the choices that can change everything. . . The Rowans' rambling Maine farmhouse is just big enough to contain the family members gathered there in the week before Christmas. Becca Rowan has driven north from Boston with one thought in mind--reclaiming the daughter she gave up when she was a frightened teenager. Raised by Becca's older brother and his wife, Rain Rowan, now sixteen, has no idea she was adopted. And though Becca agreed not to reveal the truth until Rain turned twenty-one, lately that promise, along with all her career success, counts for little in the face of her loneliness and longing. But while Becca anticipates shock at her announcement, she's unprepared for the depth of her family's reactions. Her brother is angry and fearful of losing the daughter he adores; her sister Olivia, oblivious to her crumbling marriage, reveals long-buried resentments, while Becca's parents are torn between concern and guilt. And as the Rowans' neighbor, Alex, draws her deeper into an unexpected friendship, Becca begins to challenge her own preconceptions about family, about love, and about the courage needed to live with--and sometimes change--the decisions we make. . .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758214057
• ISBN13: 9780758214058
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Loved this book

This book was chosen for our book club as our December book. We all enjoyed it very much. We could all identify with the characters,but we each identified with a different one. I hope the author writes a follow-up book so we can find out what happened to the main characters, which to us is the "signature" of a good book.

engaging family drama

Becca Rowan feels all alone, but her loneliness is compounded whenever she sees her sixteen year old niece, Rain. She knows she made a deal with her older brother David and his wife Naomi to raise Rain, but now she wants to tell her biological daughter the truth. Still Becca also knows if she does she will destroy her family as she acquiesced as a teen giving birth that her sibling and his spouse would raise her daughter as their own and telling her the truth when Rain turned twenty-one. During the annual family Christmas gathering, she plans to tell Rain the truth and to bring her daughter home. When she does, all hell breaks out. She feels remorseful wondering how selfish she was to break her promise while her brother and his wife are irate and feeling betrayed and Rain is upset and confused. Only the next door neighbor Alex provides her some comfort and advice as Becca tries to repair the disaster she caused. This is an engaging family drama although the key catalyst in causing the trauma Becca comes across extremely selfish and shallow rather than emotionally disturbed. The rest of the Rowan brood are developed to the point of being understood by readers in the way they react to Becca. Interesting and well written, fans will enjoy this contemporary tale but feel disappointed that Becca's mental anguish was not developed into crippling phobic loneliness way beyond her self-centered need. Harriet Klausner