“Gaffney’s characters are appealing and realistic…Readers will race through this book.” — New Orleans Times Picayune “Poignant….Entertaining….As good as it gets.” — New York Post No other author writes about the lives and friendships of women with more warmth and grace than New York Times bestseller Patricia Gaffney.  A true master of women’s fiction, with Circle of Three she flourishes the same breathtaking characterization and storytelling skills that made her previous novel, The Saving Graces , a readers’ favorite. The story of a woman grieving for her losses and her life, and her relationship with her overbearing mother and precocious young daughter, Circle of Three focuses on three generations of a troubled family, the anger and misunderstanding that separates them…and the love that holds them together. Gaffney does beautifully what Elizabeth Berg, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Anne Tyler also do so well: exploring the tricky bonds of family in novels both heart-soaring and heartbreaking. Patricia Gaffney's remarkable talent for describing the bittersweet connections between mothers and daughters makes the novel Circle of Three a mesmerizing study of three generations of women challenged by their shifting relationships and developing self-identities. With her ability to capture the essence of the timeless conflict of mothers' and daughters' various hopes and frustrations and the overall need for an intense connection with family, Gaffney's novel will appeal to readers of many ages. The lives of grandmother Dana, mother Carrie, and daughter Ruth are instantly altered by the untimely death of Carrie's husband, Stephen. Having recently returned to her hometown in rural Virginia, Carrie had just begun to recognize and express her dissatisfaction in her bland marriage. Stephen's death tips Carrie into a deep depression, and 15-year-old Ruth feels as if she has lost both her mother and her father. Determined to get Carrie back on track, Dana encourages her to accept a job. As Carrie begins to emerge from her depression, she finds solace in the company of her old flame, Jess, and her work as a wooden menagerie designer for a local religious group called the Arkists. When Carrie refuses to return to her old patterns, both Ruth and Dana struggle to adapt to this change and develop their own new approaches to life. With moments of quirky humor, realistic dialogue, and classic romance, Circle of Three does a tremendous job of describing the complex and conflicting process of growing up--at any age. This novel is sure to linger in your mind for months and to make the lending rounds between moms, daughters, sisters, and friends. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien The latest novel from Gaffney (The Saving Graces) follows three generations of women through one tumultuous year. The book centers on recently widowed Carrie, who sees the grieving process as a chance to reinvent herself. But for Ruth, her 15-year-old daughter, it simply precipitates the onset of parent/child separation. Dana, Carrie's 70-year-old mother, isn't grieving; she's too busy trying to direct her daughter's life. Each chapter unfolds from a different first-person perspective, and the result is choppy and superficial. The chapters follow chronologically, but there is little sense of time passing, even though time is so critical to the grieving process. Angst-ridden Ruth is realistically drawn, but the character of Dana is wasted. Because Carrie, the main attraction, views herself as wimpy, her sections are dull. Ultimately, she undergoes little true character development, merely finding a new man to replace the old one rather than developing inner strength. Public libraries should purchase on demand. -AJodi L. Israel, MLS, Jamaica Plain, MA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. In her latest offering, Gaffney, author of The Saving Graces , explores the effects, both good and bad, that mothers and daughters have on each other. When Carrie and Stephen move back to the small Virginia college town that she couldn't wait to escape, she realizes that it was her mother and not the town that she needed to leave. She's not altogether happy with her marriage, either, and starts an argument with her husband in the car just to get a reaction, but his response is far more dramatic than she intended: he has a fatal heart attack. As Carrie struggles to support herself and her teenage daughter, Ruth, she reflects on her life and sees that she married a man as remote as her father out of her lifelong habit of seeking her mother's approval, which induced her to give up Jess, her one true love, when her mother objected to their relationship. Ruth remains her only solace, until Jess reenters her life by asking her to help him help a neighbor who has formed a religious group called the Arkists who want to build a replica of Noah's ark. Carrie agrees, and becomes romantically involved with Jess once again, but this time around Ruth disapproves, thus bringing