Redheaded Reviews: Under Currents by Nora Roberts

This book is about physical, emotional, and mental abuse and for those who are triggered by that I recommend skipping this book. The book opens in 1998 with the oh, so perfect Bigelow family. Graham, the father is a surgeon, the mother, Elias, has been president of the PTA and is on many boards and social clubs, while the oldest son Zane dreams of playing professional baseball while his parents insist on his going to get his medical degree, his younger sister Brit plays piano and does ballet. One day right before Christmas they come home from school and find their dad beating up on their mom yet again. But Brit can't stop screaming and Zane is worried that their dad is going to hurt her so he steps in to protect both his mom and his sister and gets the crap beat out of him. His nose is broken and his eyes are blackened. Eliza's sister Emily was supposed to come over along with their parents but now that will all have to be moved over to Emily's house and an excuse will need to be made for Zane. They are going on a skiing trip the next day and it will be said that he fell off his bike and won't be skiing. When he gets home it will be said that he fell skiing and that's how his face got busted up. When he gets back, he asks his best friend Marcus's dad Dave to help him work out and get stronger "for baseball".

A year later Graham hits Brit and Zane loses it and goes after him. His mom is siding with his dad and Brit calls the cops. His parents say that Zane lost it when he came home late from the dance and that he must be on drugs. In the struggle, Zane's arms got really damaged. Since Dave is an EMT he showed up at the house and Zane begged him to stay with him. The cops cuffed Zane to the stretcher. Graham had dosed Brit with something to knock her out. Dave calls Emily and she shows up at the hospital to try to help. Brit wakes up and escapes the room she's in and calls Emily's cellphone. Emily comes to get Brit. Zane tells Dave of the notebooks he's kept writing in since the Christmas incident and where they are and for him to go and get them. Emily calls the Asheville cops and has them to look into this. Pretty soon Graham and Eliza, who secretly enjoyed the pain caused by her husband, both went to jail, though Eliza for less time as she gave evidence against her husband. He got fifteen to twenty years but got out in eighteen years.

Now there's a new face in Lakeview, North Carolina up in the mountains and her name is Darby McCray. She is staying in one of the bungalows that Emily's parents own and share a profit with their children. Emily takes care of the bungalows. Darby is a landscaper from Maryland whose mother has just died and that was whom she ran her business with and now she is looking to start over. She makes Emily a deal that she will do over a bungalow using her own money and if she doesn't like it she'll fix it but if she does they can make a deal on doing the other bungalows. Darby finds help with Emily's son Gabe and with a local man who flits from one job to the next named Roy, who seems to now have found his calling. She also hires a woman named Hallie and they all get to work. She also convinces Emily to do her house and the reception area.

Brit married a cop and has a toddler girl. Zane moved to Raleigh and became a prosecutor. Now he's ready to come back home. Partly because his dad's getting out of prison and partly because it's just time. He and Darby have something in common. Darby had an abusive ex-husband. They weren't married for very long and he didn't hit her too many times before she left him and pressed charges sending him to jail. The two begin a casual relationship because she doesn't want anything serious. She's still a little gun shy. But soon they will all be in trouble when Graham gets out of prison and seeks revenge on all who put him there.

There are more people in this book that have been abused by others. They are minor characters, but it goes toward the major theme of the book. Can they be saved? It's always up to the person who's being abused to make the step to leave the situation. You can only offer help. You can't force them to leave. And it's a very hard decision to make to leave. These abusers threaten the people they love. They work hard to lower the person's self-esteem so they feel worthless and they make them feel as though there is no way out. Darby is an amazing character who has really turned her life around and Zane is too. Doesn't everyone want a mom like Emily? Or a dad like Lee, the cop, or Dave, the EMT? This book is one of Robert's best books and I give it a five out of five stars.

Quotes

Cruelty and fear shake hands together.

-Honore de Balzac

Child abuse can shadow the length of a lifetime.

-Herbert Ward

Home is where one starts from.

-T.S. Eliot

You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.

-Yogi Bera

Kind hearts are the gardens,

Kind thoughts are the roots,

Kind words are the flowers,

Kind deeds are the fruits.

-Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

The earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains jagged and broken.

-Walt Whitman

Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

-Hippocrates

Darby considered frozen pizza and microwave popcorn staples of life.

-Nora Roberts (Undercurrents p 154)

“They wallpapered over wallpaper. Who knew?” He studied the walls. “The paint color might be worse.” “I know it. I know it. I may have to get a priest, a shaman, a white witch, whatever, to come in here and exorcise the spirits of evil decorating.”

-Nora Roberts (Undercurrents p 222)

“If you don’t play for the Lakeview team next season, it’s a crime against humanity.” “Crime against humanity is a little extreme.” “Baseball is humanity.”

-Nora Roberts (Undercurrents p 341)

Payback’s a religion to some people.

-Nora Roberts (Undercurrents p 375)

“Mmm. Gonna sting,” she warned when she picked up the antiseptic. “Whey is the cure nearly as painfully as the cause?” “Maybe to remind us to stay out of fights.”

-Nora Roberts (Undercurrents p 410)

You’ve never been stupid, except the times you thought you were.