Patricia Hickman

Dear Readers,

Sometimes books hit close to home and sometimes they just touch a cord in your heart. The main character, Saphora, in The Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman, touches that cord with me. So many of us know some one caught in an unhappy marriage. We either have personally experienced these feelings or have waked this path with someone.

Saphora is packed and ready to run away from home. Her marriage is a sham, Bender, her husband, has cheated for years. Her children are grown and on their own. Now is the time to go. Her plans are all thrown into a mess when Bender walks in the door early and announces to her that he has brain cancer. He wants to move to the beach house where she was going to hide out.

Saphora needs to figure out how she is going to survive all that is going on. Bender is starting to act so unlike himself. Her children and grandchildren are arriving to visit and make sure their father is ok. She has no idea what any of this means and she knows that she doesn't believe Bender when he says he has always loved her. The one question she has always wanted to ask him, "Why wasn't I enough?" seems to get stuck in her throat.
This is one of those wonderful southern genre books. It has a story that doesn't run to the end, it just gets there in its own pace. It keeps you involved the whole way and when you are done, you are sad it is done, but thankful for the chance to spend time with the families invovled. I know it is late in the season, but this would be a great summer read.
Happy Reading