Let me preface this review with the fact that I don't like "marriage of convenience" plots. That said, I read SHOWER OF STARS by Nancy Herkness and loved it.

Charlie Berglund was a reporter who nabbed an interview with a publicity-avoiding meteorite hunter named Jack Lanett. At the same time, she was trying to adopt a daughter from China. As a single parent, that's difficult; plus her career involved some high-risk activities. When a social worker told her she needed to prove she had steady income, she proposed an idea about Jack.

Jack had a meteorite he wanted to sell. This one probably came from Mars and would be proof that there was life on that planet. So he agreed to an interview for the sake of publicity for his sale. Jack also had a dark secret, so when Charlie came to him with her book idea, he thought fast to distract her. She needed an income and he had one. So he proposed a marriage of convenience.

So they married. And of course, as in any decent romance, the way to the happy ending was rocky and fraught with complications.

What I loved most about SHOWER OF STARS is that the characters were grownups. Not just in chronological age, but in their problems and how they dealt with them. Being on the far side of thirty, I find that refreshing. The baggage that Ms. Herkness gave her characters was realistic. Charlie had tried desperately to have a child with her first husband and when she couldn't, he divorced her. That would heighten anyone's need to have a child, so when Charlie married Jack, it made sense.

Full of depth and great characters that I didn't want to leave behind when the story ended, SHOWER OF STARS is a must read.

Reviewed By: Chris Redding
© August 2004