Rice's latest (Dance With Me, 2004, etc.) focuses on a family with major communication problems. John Sullivan is a talented Irish-American sculptor who finds inspiration in extreme climates. His grandest installation yet, a huge sculpture made of tree trunks, stands on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea in a remote part of Ireland. Soon after wife Honor and their three daughters come to see the completed project, John's hot temper and extreme nature land him in deep trouble. He's implicated in the mysterious death of a jealous local, found on a ledge beneath the cliffs with John's oldest daughter Regis standing by the body. Refusing to defend himself in court and drag Regis further into the case, John gets a sentence of six years in an Irish prison. The way his wife Honor sees it, he abandoned their family out of sheer stubbornness. Just a few months before Regis's wedding, John returns home to Connecticut from prison. Can he repair the damage that his absence has done? Honor is pondering divorce, and their daughters are basket cases. With a little help from his sister (a nun), John rekindles his romance with Honor. Their flaky offspring are the ones who really need guidance and attention. Regis is marrying for all the wrong reasons. Middle daughter Agnes has delusional tendencies, and when she incurs a suspicious head injury, her family wonders if she is suicidal. The Sullivans must come to terms with what actually happened six years ago in Ireland, or the family will be destroyed. Readers looking for Rice's standard mix of enduring love and family drama won't be disappointed. However, they certainly won't find anything new in this Celtic drama rife with predictable sins and one-dimensional people. (Not every character need be beautiful and brimming with passion.) The only love affair that rings true is the author's fawning adoration of Ireland. Overwrought and flimsy--but at least the coastal scenery is lovely. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Honor Sullivan travels from Connecticut to Ireland with her three young daughters to join her artist husband. Also an artist, Honor is worried about her marriage and her husband's extreme methods. John builds a sculpture on the rugged coast that turns into a nightmare for the family as John and his oldest daughter face a tormentor, and John is imprisoned for six years. When he is released, he returns to his beloved family and the Connecticut shore and finds that much has changed. Honor is scared of her reaction to John. She has worked hard to raise her family and teach art. As they struggle to find a way to reconnect as a family, more trauma ensues that will either bind them or drive them apart. With deft style, Rice delicately handles heartbreak and redemption, once again pleasing her fans with her latest story about the inhabitants of her beloved shore town. --Patty Engelmann Copyright 2006 Booklist

Rice's (Summer of Roses) latest novel, the theme of which is truth telling, revolves around the Sullivan family, torn apart but struggling to reconnect. John Sullivan is a rugged artist in the style of Andy Goldsworthy; his nature-based sculptures ("sandcastles") are temporary, preserved in photographs. Having spent six years in prison for a murder committed at the site of one of his sculptures, John is released only to be rejected by Honor, his painter wife. Honor now yearns for security, unlike her adrenaline-seeking husband. The family crisis has disturbed the lives of their daughters: the eldest, Regis, has made a poor choice of fiance and teenage Agnes is seeking visions and seeing angels. Only when Regis admits that it was she, not her father, who killed the man vandalizing John's sculpture, does the family begin to heal and reunite. After all, as Agnes puts it, "the truth matters." Set in Connecticut and Ireland, this story will appeal to fans of family-relationship novels, such as those by Elizabeth Berg and Barbara Delinsky. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/06.]-Carol J. Bissett, New Braunfels P.L., TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Given the title, July 4 pub date and settings on the Connecticut shore and County Cork coast, readers may expect the consummate beach feast from bestselling Rice (Summer of Roses). She almost delivers: all the ingredients for a clambake are here, but Rice doesn't bother to light the fire. Honor Sullivan is a woman torn apart. Her famous earthworks artist husband, John, has spent six years in an Irish prison for killing a man who attacked their then 14-year-old daughter, Regis. Now he's back at Star of the Sea Academy, the convent and school in Connecticut where the Sullivans live and teach-or rather, is in the area, but hesitant to return home and face Honor's ire at being effectively abandoned. His notes find their way to Honor, perhaps via Sister Bernadette Ignatius, who runs the community and is John's sister, and Auntie Bernie to John and Honor's daughters. Or perhaps they come via Tom Kelly, still in love with Bernie and bone-loyal to John. Add a little moonlight mysticism, Regis's impending bad marriage and a red-haired nurse given up for adoption the same year Tom and red-haired Bernie went off to Ireland to trace family roots. If only Rice seemed to care. If only she didn't craft an entire paragraph out of the word "Moonstones," which will have fans wistfully recalling nuanced Rice fiction like Blue Moon. (July 4) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved