Publisher's Weekly
Written with an ear for idiom, an eye for comedy and a heart that delights in the graces and foibles of its two protagonists, this unlikely love story unites April Ruth Bates, 16-year-old sister of the town's two classiest prostitutes, with Foster Williams, a Chesapeake Bay bridge-builder twice her age. April Ruth, as detached from her sisters' carryings-on as a farm girl is from the barnyard, preserves an untouchedness so endearing that when Foster takes her to the sea for the first time her rapture becomes the reader's. The two fall tenderly and believably in love, the mature man no less overcome by the wonder of it than the teenager. Apart from the fact that Foster earns their living, cooks their meals, cleans their housein short, turns April into a privileged childbliss abounds until the day their lame dog Vinnie is killed. Then, with Foster thunderous and accusatory, April runs away, gets a job and accepts the favors of another man. That the fated lovers come together again is the reader's hope, and eventually, delight. Naylor wrote Crazy Love. (September 29)
Library Journal
In spite of the squalor and demoralizing home life created by a drunken father and two street-wise older sisters, April Ruth Bates rebels against the threat of going to a juvenile home. When Foster Williams, a construction worker twice her age, offers to marry her, April readily agrees to avoid what seems a worse fate. The misunderstandings, frustrations, insecurities, and gossip that undermine the relationship and tear it apart, and the love and maturity that mend it and make the marriage stronger than ever, are presented here in a poignant but realistic novel of developing love and adjustment to married life. Naylor, a well-established author of children's books (and two previous adult novels), gives us a beautifully constructed and touching story that should appeal to adults and young adults alike. Recommended. Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Written with an ear for idiom, an eye for comedy and a heart that delights in the graces and foibles of its two protagonists, this unlikely love story unites April Ruth Bates, 16-year-old sister of the town's two classiest prostitutes, with Foster Williams, a Chesapeake Bay bridge-builder twice her age. April Ruth, as detached from her sisters' carryings-on as a farm girl is from the barnyard, preserves an untouchedness so endearing that when Foster takes her to the sea for the first time her rapture becomes the reader's. The two fall tenderly and believably in love, the mature man no less overcome by the wonder of it than the teenager. Apart from the fact that Foster earns their living, cooks their meals, cleans their housein short, turns April into a privileged childbliss abounds until the day their lame dog Vinnie is killed. Then, with Foster thunderous and accusatory, April runs away, gets a job and accepts the favors of another man. That the fated lovers come together again is the reader's hope, and eventually, delight. Naylor wrote Crazy Love. (September 29)
Library Journal
In spite of the squalor and demoralizing home life created by a drunken father and two street-wise older sisters, April Ruth Bates rebels against the threat of going to a juvenile home. When Foster Williams, a construction worker twice her age, offers to marry her, April readily agrees to avoid what seems a worse fate. The misunderstandings, frustrations, insecurities, and gossip that undermine the relationship and tear it apart, and the love and maturity that mend it and make the marriage stronger than ever, are presented here in a poignant but realistic novel of developing love and adjustment to married life. Naylor, a well-established author of children's books (and two previous adult novels), gives us a beautifully constructed and touching story that should appeal to adults and young adults alike. Recommended. Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Used availability for Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Unexpected Pleasures