SUMMER LIGHT

The latest from the bestselling author, among many others, of Follow the Stars (2000), among many others.

May Taylor is sure her six-year-old daughter is clairvoyant. Kylie started seeing angels at age four, and after she found that body hanged in the woods, her paranormal perception got even stronger. Now, Kylie wants to tell her mommy that their plane is about to crash, but first she has to chat with the handsome hockey player in the first-class compartment. She’s back and all buckled up when . . . aaiiiieee! They crash. Fortunately, it’s not bad, and the hockey player—Martin Cartier, of the Boston Bruins—helps her and her mommy down the inflatable slide. Should Kylie tell him that she saw the ghost-angel of his little girl Natalie before the crash? Not yet. Martin has to fall in love with May and marry her first, putting the kibosh on his team’s chance for the Stanley Cup—according to his fans, who convinced that May has put a spell on him. Back to Natalie: May finds that Martin’s father, a star player in his day, was a gambling addict. Loan sharks coming to collect hung Natalie by her heels from the balcony. Her unlucky gramps, trying to protect her, shoved her into a table by accident, fracturing her skull, so that now she watches over her daddy from heaven. When just a lad, Martin almost died for a similar reason: thugs slashed his chest open in front of his dad. Seems like Cartier Sr. might’ve learned from that experience, but no . . . . Now he’s in prison, and when May attempts to reunite father and son, Martin becomes furious. Plus, he seems to be going blind. An old retinal injury has stricken this proud warrior of the rink. Still, joy awaits: May is pregnant, and the Bruins keep on winning. There’s a tearjerker finale of blind Martin carrying the Stanley Cup and Kylie around the ice.

Unpleasantly morbid, despite all the fairy-dust and child angels. And there’s far too much play-by-play hockey for a romance.