Blue Willow: A Novel

Right up front - I enjoyed Silk & Stone a little more - largely because of the historical aspects of Silk & Stone. With that said, however, Blue Willow is a wonderful, wonderful book. Deborah Smith is a master at character development - from the sinister to the eccentric.For me, a measure of a good book is whether I take anything away with me after I'm through reading. Even when I wasn't reading it, I thought about the characters, the story line, etc. After I finished the book, there was a deep satisfaction at having read a book worth reading. One small word of caution: it seems to me that this book is a little more sexually graphic than Silk & Stone. However, this does not distract from the beauty of the characters, the development of the plot, etc., etc.

Blue Willow is the first book I read from Deborah Smith. I saw it first here at ..., i was convinced by it's book review that only recently bought it from a book sale shop. Unfortunately, I cant' find it in any of our leading (national)bookstore. Blue Willow is a great book, I love it! I fell in love with Lily and especially with Artemas. It made me laugh and cry! It's hard to put it down. This book will be worth keeping, reading all over again and again, and I'll definitely recommend it to friends. As Blue Willow was my first, it's definitely not my last.

All of us have a mental Top Ten List - those books we remember and reread, and recommend to others with enthusiasm. BLUE WILLOW is one of mine, and also has the distinction of being one of the few novels I have bought and given as a gift to others. BLUE WILLOW was my first Deborah Smith novel, bought on an impulse, and I was literally blown away by how well it was crafted. Unlike other novels, where there may be two or three fully developed characters, and the remainder serve as foils or window dressings for the protagonists, Deborah Smith manages to infuse the characters of two entire families with depth, painting a picture of people with both nobility and tragic flaws. The intimacy of the central characters is well written, physically sexual but emotionally deep. As an aside, Ms. Smith shows, in the setting of her novel and much of the narrative, a gift for researching the backround into which she will write (I learned more about ceramics than I ever knew there was to know!), and a talent for drawing pictures with words that enthralled me. I sound embarrassingly gushing, I know, but this tale is so human and so easy to identify with - loving, losing, travelling a long, painful, and lonely road, and coming full circle again. How many of us wouldn't wish for a second chance with a first love? Buy this book, and don't rush through it.

This book is an outstanding example of the romance genre. I laughed and cried. I really felt connected to all of the characters. I read it and then I gave it to my mother to read. It was excellent.