God's Country Club: A Novel

by Gail Donohue Storey

Overview

A hilarious and touching love story about an unlikely but, on the other hand, perfectly suited couple.

As Colleen and Gabriel play out tensions between Yankees and Texans, haves and have-nots, and women and men, a Texas sexual revolution threatens to break out... Colleen Sweeney takes one step closer to commitment when she stores most of her belongings in a mini-warehouse and moves into Gabriel's Houston condo complex, God's Country Club. Gabriel Benedict, a freshly divorced emergency room doctor with wealthy parents in Fort Worth and a name-sake two-year-old son, is definitely Mr. Right, but can Colleen leave her past behind and start a future? Then again, can Gabriel accept her as she is: still on the run from a kinky relationship with a cruise director; responsible for her "residentially challenged" father in Boston; and about to be downsized from her job as a librarian? With a compelling cast of characters, God's Country Club is a sendup of political correctness, class, debutantes, self-improvement strategies, do-gooders, networking, and bachelorette parties-"written with great elan" (Rosellen Brown).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892552429
Publisher:	Persea Books
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

Storey (The Lord's Motel) and her heroine Colleen Sweeney return in this lighthearted, though earnest, tale of modern love with its accompanying doubts, societal obligations and challenges to make peace with a checkered past. Houston librarian Colleen, originally from Boston, embarks on a library outreach program to the homeless in an effort to salvage her downsized job. At the same time, she moves in with Dr. Gabriel Benedict, a levelheaded ER medic still licking his wounds from a recent divorce. After a year of dating, Colleen feels drawn to Gabriel but wrestles with many typical emotional "issues": the effects of her own broken home and a childhood in the projects of Boston where her semi-homeless father still lives; her craving for intimacy; and her daunting armory of self-defense mechanisms. With its sprightly, sometimes wildly humorous repartee, the novel deftly details Colleen's relationships with Gabriel, her shopping-maniac friend Gigi and with Gabriel's too-Texan-for-words parents, Peaches and King. However, Colleen's nagging problems drag the rather lightweight story down, adding little of redemptive or original value. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Fans of Colleen Sweeney, a politically correct librarian with a checkered sexual past, will be happy to learn she's back. At the end of The Lord's Motel (LJ 9/1/92), she had just met Gabriel Benedict, a serious young doctor working in an emergency room. In this sequel, she moves into his condo in God's Country Club and struggles to make the relationship work. Although he seems to be Mr. Right, there are challenges. He's from a wealthy family in Fort Worth; she's from a dysfunctional family and has a homeless father. While Gabriel's mother spends her days at a spa, Colleen interviews homeless people to develop a library services outreach program for the disadvantaged. Can this couple find happiness in today's complicated world? The novel is filled with clashes between the sexes, races, classes, and the North and South. However, the issues are handled with good humor, so they don't become tedious. Recommended.Kimberly G. Allen, MCI Corp. Information Resources Ctr., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

In a sequel to her debut The Lord's Motel (1992), former librarian Storey continues the romantic, tongue-in-cheek adventures of the comically neurotic Colleen Sweeney, besting the urban upheavals of modern Houston.

Having escaped the clutches of the lecherous Web Desiderio in the last novel, Colleen finally hooks Mr. Right in the form of Gabriel Benedict, ER doctor, tall rich Texan, and all-around sensitive guy. Colleen moves into his country club condo for a thinly veiled marriage tryout. Gabriel, who's getting in touch with his feminine side to avoid another traumatic divorce, is the man of Colleen's dreams, but, in her own words, "Worry is how organized people like me take care of their catastrophes in advance." Which is not to say that the anxious Colleen doesn't have anything to worry about: To retain her job at the library, she's volunteered to take library services to the homeless, bringing her face-to-face with the less fortunate residents of Houston. Raised in the Boston projects herself, and with a father who is currently homeless, Colleen should be familiar with the ravages of poverty, though unfortunately the conversations she has with her target group are naïve enough to sound like simplistic propaganda. Furthermore, once she and Gabriel become engaged, complications arise—entering into Texas society, making wedding plans, keeping her unconventional family hidden from Gabriel and his parents, Peaches and King, winning over Gabriel's obstinate son. Along the way, Storey offers comic one-liners on the absurdities of modern relationships, feminist networking, and a whole host of other post-yuppie targets, providing a Texas-size helping of zingers and satirical commentary. There's even a running analysis of the Charles and Di fiasco as a paradigm of modern love.

Engaging and casually endearing, but there are no surprises here, and the "issues" are rendered with too heavy a hand.

Kirkus Reviews