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	DISABILITY RESOURCES ONLINE
	Monitoring, Reviewing and Reporting on Resources For Independent Living
	Updated 5/2007
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Holiday Confessions
by Anne Marie Winston

Silhouette, 2006. Softcover, 192 pages, $4.50.

 

When not reviewing books, I spend a lot of time chatting on guide dog internet lists. On one such list comprised of guide dog handlers and puppyraisers from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a former puppyraiser had a "novel" request last year, if you will pardon the pun. Best-selling romance novelist Anne Marie Winston, while writing a book featuring a blind protagonist with a current and a retired guide dog, asked me and my fellow guide dog handlers for help in understanding blindness and the daily ins and outs of living in a mainly sighted world. So, with Holiday Confessions kindly dedicated to me and my first guide dog Boise and other list guide dog teams, I have more than a passing interest in Winston's engaging and realistically-told tale. So will any reader looking for a well-crafted genre novel with a disability theme.

While the plot revolving around the growing love entanglement between a former super model who chucked life in the fast lane for a normal small-town life and her neighbor, a dazzlingly handsome blind attorney is standard romance fare, Winston's story-telling and sensitive, on-the-mark depiction of blindness are added treats. As a reviewer and an avid reader, I cannot recall the last time I came across a novel that displays such an accurate and well-rounded picture of blindness.

As with many romance novels, Holiday Confessions has a few steamy encounters between the love interests, so this book would not be appropriate for young readers. Other than that reservation, I have absolutely no bones to pick with Winston's winner.

 

-Reviewed by Sally Rosenthal

 

About the reviewer: A former college librarian and occupational therapist, Sally Rosenthal retired her first and much-loved guide dog Boise last year for medical reasons. Boise , living happily in retirement with her own puppyraiser, would rather romp around the yard than settle down with a good book but, nonetheless, thanks the author for including her in the book's dedication. Sally is awaiting the arrival of her next guide dog during Spring 2007.