HARVESTING THE HEART

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult is known for picking up on hot-button issues that reverberate through the zeitgeist. This time it's the "mommy blues," and while it's easy to understand Page Prescott's need to get away from her mothering duties to find her own mother, who abandoned her as a child, it's a challenge to care much about her. The impossibly attractive heart surgeon, Nicholas, saves Page from herself, and, while he has a hard time forgiving her for leaving him with a three-month-old infant, the listener is still pulling for the couple to work out their problems. Narrator Cassandra Campbell handles the emotional roller coaster of Page's plight with aplomb, squeezing every ounce of sympathy possible from the runaway mom. R.O. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2008]