Julia gives up professional dance career, suffered from eating disorder, now lives with her folks who watch her every bite of food, and got a job as a school counselor. Fights for her students, almost loses job, helps Dell in her classes, finds fulfilment.... ( )

See? There is some women's fiction I like. It's the one genre, though, where the subject matter makes the difference for me. In any other genre--mystery, romance, fantasy, science fiction, etc.--the subject doesn't usually change my opinion of a book, at least not more than marginally. It's usually the writing, and the author's voice that I respond to. I'm going to have to think about why the subject matters to me in women's fiction.

Drenched in Light is the 4th book in the Tending Roses series. I haven't read Tending Roses; I liked Good Hope Road very much; didn't like The Language of Sycamores; and really liked this one. Perhaps the difference is that Good Hope Road and Drenched in Light are more about beginnings.

Julia is working as a guidance counselor in a performing arts middle school, after years of eating disorders destroyed her career as a dancer. She's been coasting along, mourning her lost career and chafing against her parents' solicitude--feeling sorry for herself, in short. Then her sister gets pregnant, accelerating her wedding plans; a young girl (Dell, from the previous books) who's a gifted musician is failing her classes and the administration wants her out of the school--not least because she's not "the right sort"; and it becomes more and more obvious that there's a drug problem in the school that everyone is denying.

All those things make Julia focus on someone other than herself and her own problems, and she ends up discovering passion and drive for something besides dance. Especially important was that she took responsibility for her actions and decisions, both in the present and in the past.

The feeling of hope at the end of Drenched in Light is, I think, what women's fiction books in general are aiming for. ( )

This book's main character took me a while to like - I didn't warm up to her for quite a while. Once I got over that hump, the story was compelling at times and raised many issues relating to modern life (class, drugs, suburban blinders towards kids getting in trouble, etc). Many likeable characters and a decent storyline make this a good, quick read.

From BackCover:
Deep in my heart, a part of me will always be barefoot, running through the shallows of Mulberry Creek, with my eyes closed and my arms stretched out like I could fly.

Once a gifted ballet dancer, Julia Costell understands the joy of body and soul lost in a perfect moment. But after buckling under the demands of a professional dance career, she's landed with a thud as a guidance counselor at a performing arts high school. Living with her parents and feeling lost, Julia is afraid she'll never soar again. Until the day young Dell Jordan is sent to her office.

In Dell's writing, Julia recognizes not only her own despair, but also luminous sparks of hope. But as Julia fi ghts to forge a brighter future for one disadvantaged student, she is drawn into startling undercurrents of conflict and denial within the academy. Only then does she begin to discover where real meaning and fulfillment lie, and realize that even though her life has seemed off course, she's been on the right path all along. ( )