Change of Heart: A Novel

by Tracy Stern

Overview

From Simon & Schuster, and the author of This I Promise You, Change of Heart is Tracy Stern's novel of heartbreaking love and death.

In love and ecstatic about their child on the way, Kerry is devastated to learn that Brad has been killed in an icy car crash and does not know what to do in the face of pressure to give up her baby for adoption.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684870403
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	04/01/1999
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Tracy Stern is the author of Change of Heart, a Simon & Schuster book.

Editorial Reviews

The emotional turmoil of adoption churns through this romantic yarn by Stern (This I Promise). In her early 20s, Kerry McKinney planned to marry her childhood sweetheart, finish college and start a writing career. When her fianc dies in an accident, she is devastated-and secretly pregnant. Turning to her grandmother Lisbeth in San Francisco, Kerry gets and heeds advice to give the baby up. Satisfied that she's found the perfect adoptive couple, Kerry is set in her decision-until the baby is born and she discovers that letting go is not so easy after all. While Stern has chosen a gut-wrenching premise, she fails to give her story the emotional power or poignancy it deserves. Kerry's immature, often thoughtless behavior does little to illuminate the pain of such a decision. Stern dishes out old-fashioned thinking in tepid prose: "Lisbeth was convinced that the right choice for Kerry was to give the baby up for adoption. She didn't want Kerry to compromise the rest of her life by being tied down with a baby at such a young age. She wouldn't be able to complete her education, or have a career. How many men would be attracted to her if she was saddled with a young child?" This antiquated attitude is meant to justify the troubling fact that the paternal grandparents are never informed that their dead son had a child. Such an omission will create within most readers a chilling distance from Kerry-a fatal flaw in a tale meant to tug heart strings. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Stern (This I Promise You, HarperCollins, 1991) is a romance veteran who turns her focus on a contemporary issue: the unwed mother. Kerry, the novel's protagonist, is pregnant when her fianc, Brad, is killed in an automobile accident. Keeping the pregnancy a secret, Kerry turns to her wealthy, understanding grandmother in San Francisco, who offers her shelter and helps her find a job. In rapid succession, Kerry decides to give up the baby for adoption; selects her grandmother's tenants, Chris and Matt, as the prospective parents; has the baby; meets Josh, an attractive young man; decides she wants the baby; and sues to reverse the adoption. There is minimal character development in this made-for-television book, and although Stern tells us what Kerry is thinking, her decisions seem unmotivated. Pregnant teens will find it hard to identify with a girl who suffers so few consequences and whose lifestyle is so comfortable. A marginal purchase.-Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.

Library Journal