Stealing Home and Saints in Limbo: Book Reviews

When I looked at Stealing Home by Allison Pittman, I must say that I wasn't anxious to start it. I had just finished a book that I loved, and I was afraid of being disappointed by a dud. Not to mention the fact that it was about baseball (to some degree)--which I am not interested in at all. But since it was next on my list, I grudgingly picked it up and started in. I must say, by the end of the first chapter I was hooked. I read through the book in about 4 days, needing to find out what happened next. I am a sucker for a good love story, though. :-)

In 1905, Chicago Cubs baseball superstar Donald "Duke" Dennison is sent to Picksville, Missouri, to complete the end of his rehabilitation from alcoholism. He is staying with the father and sister of David Voyant, the sportswriter who exposed the truth of his disease, in a dry town away from the spotlight. Ellie Jane, David's sister, and Floyd, the town sheriff, take him in and try to help him adjust to small town life. Duke finds his own way when he starts a town baseball team, but before he heads back to Chicago, two drifters out for revenge take what doesn't belong to them.

The story comes from 4 different perspectives, Duke, Ellie Jane, Ned Clovis, who owns the local feed store and is in love with Ellie Jane, and Morris Bennett, a 12 year old Negro boy who finds he is a natural at baseball. I really enjoyed the unique perspective of each character. Definitely a good read!


I was not on a roll, however, with the attention grabbers. I know that Saints in Limbo by River Jordan comes highly acclaimed and has already received the positive attention of readers and critics alike, however, I could only make myself read the first eight chapters...and that was pushing it. I guess I kept hoping that it would get better and really draw me in, but it didn't, and I wasn't.

To be fair, here is the summary:
Ever since her husband Joe died, Velma True’s world has been limited to what she can see while clinging to one of the multicolored threads tied to the porch railing of her home outside Echo, Florida.

When a mysterious stranger appears at her door on her birthday and presents Velma with a special gift, she is rattled by the object’s ability to take her into her memories–a place where Joe still lives, her son Rudy is still young, unaffected by the world’s hardness, and the beginning is closer than the end. As secrets old and new come to light, Velma wonders if it’s possible to be unmoored from the past’s deep roots and find a reason to hope again.

I guess it just wasn't the type of story that I'm really sucked into. I don't know what was really missing. Maybe it sounds like it is right up your ally. If it does, and you read it, let me know how it ends, because I know I won't be sticking around long enough to find out. :-)