A Thing of Beauty

<p><b>It's a wonder tobehold what happens when love moves in . . .</b></p><p>Former child starFiona Hume deserted the movie biz a decade ago--right after she left rehab. Shelanded in Baltimore bought a dilapidated old mansion downtown and hatcheddreams of restoring it into a masterpiece complete with a studio for herself.She would disappear from public view and live an artist's life.</p><p>That was the plan.</p><p>Ten years laterFiona's huge house is filled with junk purchased at thrift stores haggled overat yard sales or picked up from the side of the road. Each piece was destinedfor an art project . . . but all she's got so far is a piece of twine with someantique buttons threaded down its length.</p><p>She's thirty-twoyears old and still recognizable but Fiona's money has finally run out. She'sgotten pretty desperate too and in her desperation she's willing to do almostanything for money. Almost. So it is that she comes to rent out the maid'squarters to a local blacksmith named Josia Yeu.</p><p>Josia is everything Fionaisn't: gregarious peaceful in control without controlling . . . in shorthappy. As the light from the maid's quarters begins to permeate the dank roomsof Fiona's world something else begins to transform as well-something insideFiona. Something even she can see is beautiful.</p><p>Samson is in top page-turner form . . . The end isthoroughly satisfying in that old-fashioned can't-let-the-characters-go kindof way. -<i>Publishers Weekly</i></p>