The McCloud Home for Wayward Girls

Excess melodrama mars Delsol's (Stork) tangled multi-generational tale. The McClouds run a family inn in small-town Iowa that used to be a home for unwed teenage mothers. When innkeeper Jill McCloud agrees to host the wake for deceased local matriarch Hester Fraser, long-held family secrets emerge in a series of confusing flashbacks. As Jill struggles to deal with her feisty but unstable mother, Ruby, and her unhappy teenage daughter, Fee, the return of Hester's nephew (and Jill's former love) Keith%E2%80%94as well as Jill's sexually adventurous sister Jocelyn%E2%80%94resurrects an old love triangle complicated by Ruby's old enmity with Hester. The story shifts between the present day, the mid-90s, and the mid-60s (when Ruby first arrived in town as a pregnant teenager), and the history revealed in these confusing, unmarked flashbacks simply defies belief. Though the portrayals of youthful Ruby and teenage Fee are delightful and convincing, their charm unfortunately fails to carry the reader through the sudsy and increasingly improbable secrets of the McClouds. (Aug.)