~ Review: When Twilight Comes ~

PLOT SYNOPSIS:  When their mother is taken seriously ill and insists that one of her three children take over her job running a weekly newspaper, a daughter blossoms from docile, devoted sister into a dynamic woman living life on her own terms.

REVIEW:  When Marge Hairston takes terminally ill, she has to make a serious decision about the future of her newspaper, The Woodmore Times.  She offers the running of the company to each of her children, Cassie, Drogan, and Sharon, but it is only Sharon, the youngest, who, without hesitation, takes on the magnitude of the task.  Expecting this, she sells Sharon the ownership for $100, to ensure that Sharon has full responsibility of the newspaper.   This decision causes a serious division between Sharon and her siblings.  Despite their mother’s illness, Cassie and Drogan are unable to look beyond the fact that they have been "wronged" and lost “their inheritance”.

Characterization has always been Ms. Forster’s forte, and in WHEN TWILIGHT COMES she takes readers into the lives of a family torn apart by greed and selfishness, and with bold insight allows them to see into the very hearts of the characters.

Cassie and Drogan, for example, are self-centered and insensitive, and at times, made me want to shake them and ask them to grow up.  Their selfishness, and constant whining, only serve to emphasise the qualities that make Sharon seem more heroic.   Like the youngest daughter in Shakespeare’s King Lear, she possesses virtue and kindness.

On the day her mother sells her the newspaper, Sharon receives a letter offering her the position of assistant dean in her faculty at the university where she works, a position that she has dreamed about for years, and one that she has earned.  But she knows that the newspaper needs her and she dives head first into the unknown, her only concern her mother’s illness, and doing what she know is right for the company.  While the quite, unassuming Sharon grows in confidence, she must confront the growing attraction she feels for Rafe McCall, a complication that she is not sure she wants.

The relationship between Merge and Ross, her long time friend, makes this story special.  The noble love of a man for a woman is a characteristic of literature that has existed for generation.  Ross’ nobility is seen in his gentle, yet firm devotion to Marge…and the pain he feels at her illness is evident in his every word and actions.

There is much to say about WHEN TWILIGHT COMES, but readers must discover some of these treasure on their own.

WHEN TWILIGHT COMES is a significant departure for Ms. Forster.  Thought mainstream fiction, it is sure to please her romance fans, while allowing her to embrace a wider audience.

Ms. Forster, what a way to begin 2002!

15th February 2002