Rating: 
Summary: The best!
Review: I thought that A WOMAN'S HEART was JoAnn Ross's best book, until I picked up FAIR HAVEN. Her newest story actually manages to transcend the romance genre, grab you by your heart in the first chapter and never let go. It is about more than just boy meets girl, or the power of love, it speaks about the power and majesty of life.Erin & Michael are both scarred and weary souls, who meet in this place because a good friend of thiers is dying. Michael has become a hermit to avoid all of the painful things in the world he has seen, while Erin, arrives determined to work tirelessly to save their mutual friend. She has found relief from her demons in work. The sparks they generate between them are as much about thier diffrent reactions to the troubles they have seen, as to sexual tension. If these two characters were not enough, Ms. Ross has set this book back in Ireland. Besides being part of the HOME PLACE triology, it is also a sequal to A WOMAN'S HEART. The best thing I can say about this book is that the minute I finished it, I was ready to start reading it again!
Rating:
Summary: Fair Haven - Great Book!
Review: JoAnn Ross continues her adventures of the people of Coldwater Cove (FAR HARBOR, HOMEPLACE) with her newest book FAIR HAVEN. It is a remarkable story of love. Not just the romantic love, but love of a father, love for a friend, love for mankind, and a love that transcends time. Deeply moving! Michael Joyce has spent most of his career looking through the camera lens at the horrible suffering of those caught up in a world at war. Wounded and burned out, Michael returns to his family's farm in the small Irish village of Castlelough. He is only looking for peace. Michael can't escape his ghosts that easily. He finds that the atrocities of war have not left his hometown unscathed. His childhood friend, Dr. Tom Flannery is dying of the effects of being gassed years earlier while working as a medical relief doctor. Then Michael 's ex-lover is gunned down in Belfast leaving him with an eight-year-old daughter he never knew existed. Shea's presence changes Michael forever. He is surprised to learn that his heart was not left with most of his blood in Sarevjo. Especially when he meets Erin O'Halloran. Dr. Erin O'Halloran leaves the small Washington town of Coldwater Cove to travel across the country and an ocean to help her best friend and colleague, Tom Flannery. Erin has lived and worked among the emaciated bodies of refugees the world over, but is unprepared for Tom's thin haggard appearance. She is determined to save him and his surgery. Only after a few hours in Ireland, Erin feels like she has come home to Castlelough and to the brooding Michael Joyce. In the magical village of Castlelough, Erin's and Michael's nightmares of war have a chance to turn into the centuries old dreams that they both mysteriously share. Mere words of praise cannot express the myriad of emotions I felt while reading this book. The heartrending images JoAnn Ross' words conjured in my mind will stay with me for sometime. I applaud her style of storytelling. She never lets the reader rest. The next page must be read .....and the next.....and the next. Husband, laundry, and dishes are forgotten until the last page is turned. The sights, sounds, and fragrances of Ireland waft from the pages of this wonderful tale. The author's blending of ghosts, fairies, and Irish legend with the stark reality of today's world only adds to the intense effect of this story. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Riveting emotional and spiritual turmoil!
Rating:
Summary: Fair Haven - Great Book!
Review: JoAnn Ross continues her adventures of the people of Coldwater Cove (FAR HARBOR, HOMEPLACE) with her newest book FAIR HAVEN. It is a remarkable story of love. Not just the romantic love, but love of a father, love for a friend, love for mankind, and a love that transcends time. Deeply moving! Michael Joyce has spent most of his career looking through the camera lens at the horrible suffering of those caught up in a world at war. Wounded and burned out, Michael returns to his family's farm in the small Irish village of Castlelough. He is only looking for peace. Michael can't escape his ghosts that easily. He finds that the atrocities of war have not left his hometown unscathed. His childhood friend, Dr. Tom Flannery is dying of the effects of being gassed years earlier while working as a medical relief doctor. Then Michael 's ex-lover is gunned down in Belfast leaving him with an eight-year-old daughter he never knew existed. Shea's presence changes Michael forever. He is surprised to learn that his heart was not left with most of his blood in Sarevjo. Especially when he meets Erin O'Halloran. Dr. Erin O'Halloran leaves the small Washington town of Coldwater Cove to travel across the country and an ocean to help her best friend and colleague, Tom Flannery. Erin has lived and worked among the emaciated bodies of refugees the world over, but is unprepared for Tom's thin haggard appearance. She is determined to save him and his surgery. Only after a few hours in Ireland, Erin feels like she has come home to Castlelough and to the brooding Michael Joyce. In the magical village of Castlelough, Erin's and Michael's nightmares of war have a chance to turn into the centuries old dreams that they both mysteriously share. Mere words of praise cannot express the myriad of emotions I felt while reading this book. The heartrending images JoAnn Ross' words conjured in my mind will stay with me for sometime. I applaud her style of storytelling. She never lets the reader rest. The next page must be read .....and the next.....and the next. Husband, laundry, and dishes are forgotten until the last page is turned. The sights, sounds, and fragrances of Ireland waft from the pages of this wonderful tale. The author's blending of ghosts, fairies, and Irish legend with the stark reality of today's world only adds to the intense effect of this story. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Riveting emotional and spiritual turmoil!
Rating:
Summary: JoAnn Ross is on my autobuy list
Review: JoAnn Ross has done it again. This book was absolutely marvelous! I read it in one sitting. I just could not put this story down. Erin and Michael are two tortured souls who find each other but won't admit that they are soulmates. This book has a little bit of everything in it from angels to ghosts to miracles to lots and lots of love. It is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: JoAnn Ross is on my autobuy list
Review: JoAnn Ross has done it again. This book was absolutely marvelous! I read it in one sitting. I just could not put this story down. Erin and Michael are two tortured souls who find each other but won't admit that they are soulmates. This book has a little bit of everything in it from angels to ghosts to miracles to lots and lots of love. It is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Keeps Getting Better!
Review: Michael Joyce has seen the world through the lens of his camera . . . seen the horrors of war firsthand. He's put that life away and come home to Ireland to forget. But some memories can't be erased. The ghosts of the dead haunt him, each day stealing a little more of his soul until he wonders if there's anything left of the man he used to be. He's ready to give up, but fate isn't. A daughter he never knew he possessed is his first gift from heaven -- a woman he never knew he was missing is the second. Erin O'Halloran has seen the what war does to people first hand, but nothing has prepared her for what a fatal illness is doing to her friend. She travels to Ireland hoping to save his life and while she searches for a cure, she finds her heart and soul in Michael Joyce. Two world-weary, lonely souls find each other and through their love find salvation in this breathtaking novel by JoAnn Ross. Fans of Ross's Coldwater Cove books (Far Harbor and Homeplace) will enjoy seeing another O'Halloran find true love, this time in the Irish setting of Ross's A Woman's Heart. Magic and passion ignite on the Emerald Isle, weaving a tale as gentle as an Irish rain as Ross joins two of her most enduring families, the Joyce's and O'Hallorans, in a story that will make you believe that magic does exist.
Rating: 
Summary: A note from JoAnn Ross, August 19, 2000
Review: My Grandfather McLaughlin was a seanachie - an Irish teller of tales. My earliest memories are listening to the music of his lyrical voice spinning grand stories of kings and castles, battles and banishments, magic and miracles. Hardly a day goes by that I don't realize that by exploring my favorite themes of love and loyalty, friendship and families, I'm following in Grandda's footsteps. In all his tales, heroes and heroines ventured forth on perilous quests against seemingly impossible odds, slaying myriad dragons along the way. Tyrants were toppled, lovers united, the wicked were punished, justice always prevailed in the end and the good always lived happily ever after. And isn't that, after all, what love stories are all about? FAIR HAVEN, like its predecessor, A WOMAN'S HEART, is truly a book of my heart. Tom and Erin are embarking on a perilous journey of the heart where they'll be forced to battle a few of their own private dragons. I came to care deeply for Michael, Erin, Shea, and Tom while writing their story and hope you will, as well. The first chapter and some reviews (which have been lovely), are posted on my website; I'm not allowed to give you the URL here, but it's easily found with a name search. ... Happy Reading! JoAnn
Rating:
Summary: A True Delight!
Review: This book was wonderful! All the characters - Michael,Erin, Tom, Shea, - were "real" and the whole story was believable. Even the Irish magic that was woven in. Michael and Erin's love story was sweet and passionate. My special favourite was Shea: what a litle charmer! She had all the insecurities 8 year olds have, though. Sometimes kids that age act so mature and grownup that you forget they need to be constantly reassured about family security and love. Ross' style reminded me of Nora Roberts and Maeve Binchy. She's an excellent writer and this is truly an exceptional novel. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Made me cry
Review: This is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review of a book. I just finished Ross' Fair Haven. I picked it up on a whim since I'd read nd enjoyed her earlier works. This book made me cry and made me tingle. Michael and Erin's acceptance of their feelings and the way in which the cope together with the challenges that they face seems a much more mature response to the world than many other characters. Life isn't perfect and neither are they - except in each others eyes.
Rating:
Summary: The love between friends can be that strong!
Review: This was my 1st JoAnn Ross to read- and it won't be my last! After arriving home to spend some time with her family, Dr. Erin O'Halloran receives a request from a dear friend to travel to Western Ireland. After years of working on the front lines of war, Dr. Tom Flanner is now dying at a young age from the effects of gas warfare. He says that his reason for requesting her to come is for her to help with his medical practice as he slowly loses his strength and becomes bedridden but there's a hidden agenda. Michael Joyce has come home after spending years as a Pulitzer Prize Award photographer from the front lines of war needing to recover physically and emotionally from the effects of war. He has escaped to his family farm but the ghosts are even there. His childhood friend Dr. Tom Flannery is dying. While Michael is having to face the future loss of his best friend Tom, he is approached by his old girlfriend's mother accompanied by a little girl. He discovers that the past girlfriend/lover was killed in a bombing at her wedding and has left a daughter who she claimed was Michael's by blood. Michael who never wanted to marry, much less have kids, now finds himself with a daughter he did not know existed to raise. After leaving Coldwater Cove, Washington, Erin travels across the world to Castlelough, Ireland. She is introduced to Michael at the airport by Tom and her first impression of Michael is one of his being a cold- hard man. But as time goes by she learns that he does have a warm heart and they have a lot in common from what they both experienced with war. As time goes by Erin feels she has come home and known Michael forever, which can not be since they just met- and there is a little mystery there that I will leave for the reader. It is a story of the love between friends, father-daughter, lovers, family, etc. The setting being in Ireland is delightful. I really enjoyed this story! and highly recommend it to the reader. I will go back and get the prequel A Woman's Heart- I enjoyed the story that much.
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