BARBARA DELINSKY'S BOOKS NEVER FAIL TO DISAPPOINT. THIS IS ANOTHER GREAT STORY....DIDN'T WANT TO PUT THE BOOK DOWN ONCE I STARTED TO READ IT. WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE WHO WOULD ENJOY A GREAT NOVEL. EASY TO RELAX AND ENJOY. MANY THANKS, BARBARA...LOVE YOUR BOOKS!

I am a longtime fan of this author. However, how does an accomplished author like this get away with such glaring errors in the book? Two examples; Paige goes to talk to the girls at the school after Friday's funeral. Why then, do they get in trouble for not attending the mandatory study hall which takes place Sunday through Thursday evenings? It's Friday! Also, reference is made to it being near Labor Day, as well as it being the beginning of summer. Did she mean Memorial Day? These are just a couple that I noticed right off the bat. I expect an author of this caliber to be more accurate, and not leave these items in the hand of the editor and proof reader.

This is Barbara Delinsky at her best. Suddenly has all the qualities that have made me a fan of this author. It searches our values, faith and hope in the future. This book is totally entertaining and informative and I high recommend it to all you love a good romance mixed with enlightening characters.

How do you cope with the loss of your best friend - not an expected passing related to age or illness but a sudden, shocking death due to suicide? Do you weep, grieve, and chastize yourself for not being aware of your friend's anguish?

Pediatrician Paige Pfieffer did all of the above when her best friend and business partner Mara O'Neill was found dead. "All she could think was that the tragedy might have been prevented if she had been more attentive, more understanding or more perceptive a friend."

To compound matters Mara's parents ask Paige to make funeral plans, a painful task. Further, when she learns that Mara's body had been found filled with Valium she wonders as she and the other partners, Angie and Peter, knew that Mara was "....vehemently opposed to drug taking. Of the four of us, she issued the fewest prescriptions."

All believed Mara to be her usual energetic self, enthusiastically working, happy, eagerly looking forward to the arrival of her adopted daughter from India.

As author Delinsky reveals in Suddenly, sometimes when a tragedy such as this seemingly senseless, inexplicable one occurs others reevaluate their lives, their beliefs, their actions, their goals. Such is the case with all of the partners but is primarily explored through Paige who cares for Mara's young daughter and finds herself attracted to Noah Perrine, the acting head of a local school where Paige coaches girls' athletics.

Many will be touched by this story and once again realize the value of friendship, compassion and love.

- Gail Cooke

In Tucker, Vermont, pediatrician Mara O'Neill died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her best friend and practice partner thirty-nine years old Dr. Paige Pfeiffer is stunned by the news. However, even more shocking to the pediatrician is when the autopsy reveals Valium in Mara's blood, the police rule most likely suicide. Paige refuses to believe that is true as her friend was euphoric over the adoption of a child from India.

Pediatric practice partner Angie Bigelow feels Mara's death is the end of her once happy marriage to Peter Grace, who was having an affair with the deceased. Paige is in denial that her friend since college is dead. However, she honors Mara by caring for the Asian infant that the late doctor was adopting at the same time struggling with her desires for Noah Perrine, acting head of the private school where she coaches the Mount Court Academy's Girls Cross Country team.

This is a reprint of an early 1990s character study. Ironically, Barbara Delinsky provides readers a deep look at Paige and to a lesser degree Angie; but through them Mara. The story line makes a case that it takes a well rounded person to do a good job raising a child. Although the independent women SUDDENLY seem too dependent on men, fans will appreciate the deep look at each of the females as Mara's death cuts through them like a surgical knife in this entertaining fiction.

Harriet Klausner