A Thing of Beauty

It’s a wonder tobehold what happens when love moves in . . .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.That was the plan.Ten years later,Fiona’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.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.Josia is everything Fionaisn’t: gregarious, peaceful, in control without controlling . . . in short,happy. 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.'Samson is in top page-turner form . . . The end isthoroughly satisfying in that old-fashioned, can’t-let-the-characters-go kindof way.' -Publishers Weekly