[.uk] Fair Haven (ISBN 0671786113)

The love between friends can be that strong!:
This was my 1st JoAnn Ross to read- and it won't be my last! After arriving home to spend some time with her family, Dr. Erin O'Halloran receives a request from a dear friend to travel to Western Ireland. After years of working on the front lines of war, Dr. Tom Flanner is now dying at a young age from the effects of gas warfare. He says that his reason for requesting her to come is for her to help with his medical practice as he slowly loses his strength and becomes bedridden but there's a hidden agenda. Michael Joyce has come home after spending years as a Pulitzer Prize Award photographer from the front lines of war needing to recover physically and emotionally from the effects of war. He has escaped to his family farm but the ghosts are even there. His childhood friend Dr. Tom Flannery is dying. While Michael is having to face the future loss of his best friend Tom, he is approached by his old girlfriend's mother accompanied by a little girl. He discovers that the past girlfriend/lover was killed in a bombing at her wedding and has left a daughter who she claimed was Michael's by blood. Michael who never wanted to marry, much less have kids, now finds himself with a daughter he did not know existed to raise. After leaving Coldwater Cove, Washington, Erin travels across the world to Castlelough, Ireland. She is introduced to Michael at the airport by Tom and her first impression of Michael is one of his being a cold- hard man. But as time goes by she learns that he does have a warm heart and they have a lot in common from what they both experienced with war. As time goes by Erin feels she has come home and known Michael forever, which can not be since they just met- and there is a little mystery there that I will leave for the reader. It is a story of the love between friends, father-daughter, lovers, family, etc. The setting being in Ireland is delightful. I really enjoyed this story! and highly recommend it to the reader. I will go back and get the prequel A Woman's Heart- I enjoyed the story that much.

I enjoyed this magical tale.....:
Erin O'Halloran is off to try and save one of her best friends in Ireland. She is called by her friend Tom to help with his medical practice as he is dying. As a fellow member of "Dr.'s without Borders" she immediately is off to not only help him but to find a cure for him also. Michael is a boyhood friend of Tom's and trying to shut out the world. He has returned to Ireland after leading a dangerous life as an award winning photojournalist. As a matter of fact, one of his last assignments almost got him killed in the same area where Tom and Erin were working. He now has a simple life of farming and sheep herding. Suddenly things change for him. The mother of an ex-girlfriend drops by with a child. She says not only has her daughter died but the child is his, and is 6 years old. Michael is stunned but instantly mesmerized by the child and takes her in. While neither Erin nor Michael is looking for a relationship they are instantly drawn together. In fact circumstances seem to make them closer than either intended. As Tom gets sicker and it looks like Erin can't figure out how to save him she finds herself wanting to take over his practice permanently. She has fallen in love with the land and the people. Suddenly Michael's daughter is having issues with behavior and memory. She seems to have things happen or act out in ways that don't seem consistent with her personality. When she falls unconscious Erin is able to help determine that she has a brain tumor. Erin calls in a specialist she knows from DWOB and they manage to save the little girl Erin and Michael finally face the fact they are better together as a family than apart. I was a bit surprised by the amount of magical interaction in this story as I had started reading JR with her more recent romantic suspense's (Blaze and Impulse) so I was taken aback. But, the book was still very well written and caused me to be concerned along with the characters as to the tragedy and human spirit that was portrayed in the book. I think it is another good one by JR.

A romantic tale....:
As a relief doctor, Erin O'Halloran has seen things that most people only see in their nightmares. When her best friend and mentor calls from Ireland and tells her that he is ill, Erin flies over to find something to save him. She is ill prepared for the magic of Ireland, nor for Michael Joyce, whom she is drawn to like she has been drawn to no other man. Michael Joyce has gone into seclusion at his home. Away from prying eyes and gossipy mouths, Michael is content with his solitary life. When the mother of one of his ex-lovers shows up with an eight year old girl in tow, Michael sees is solitary exsistance dissolving as if it never exsisted. When he first sees the lovely Dr. O'Halloran, Michael vows to stay away from her, as his life has enough complications. Ross brings the reader to the magic of Ireland, again, where anything is possible, from having guardian angels to talking with people that have passed away. She brings together Erin and Michael in an unbelieveable story that she makes the reader believe. The reader will also love Shea, Michael's daughter, from the first page she graces. I can't wait until Ross's next book about Ireland comes out!

Pulitzer photojounalist hero & relief aid physician heroine:
I have been branching out to a wide variety of new authors. I had only read one of Ross's books prior to Fair Haven. It is the prequel to this book, A Woman's Heart. A Woman's Heart earned a five star rating when I reviewed it on Amazon. Fair Haven, however, will not rate as high. Joann Ross is a very good author and writes charming, personable stories full of Irish history and fables. But Fair Haven was a fairly boring book. The Irish history was interesting but I admit that I am not drawn to ancient Irish myths, fairies, guardian angels, and ghosts of relatives. There are many very old Irish tales told in this book by my more than one character. I know it is to draw me into this slightly magical world of Ireland in present day. But the tales were lackluster and the appearance of the dead or the reliving of lives through reincarnation was wearisome rather than intriguing. I state all this upfront for you to understand my reasons for rating this book three stars. This is a story of family, recovery, death, love, and magic. It reads like a novel rather than a romance novel. The romance is only a portion of this book (probably a third) and the remainder of the book concentrates on secondary characters, characters from the previous book in this series, and - as mentioned before - the telling of many, many Irish legends. Michael Joyce, the brother of Nora from A Woman's Heart, is the hero of Fair Haven. He is a celebrated photographer who has covered the wars across the world and has become cynical and withdrawn in the process. Although he has won a Pulitzer Prize for his work and published books, he no longer wants to be associated with the dredges of war and ethnic cleansing. He has returned to his farm in Ireland and spends all of this time alone attempting to find a life again after becoming a shell of a man. Erin O'Halloran is a physician who has worked the hospitals on the warfronts of the world in relief aid. She too has seen the atrocities that Michael has seen and is burning out. Her best friend and former relief worker, Tom Flannery, also a physician, is dying in his home country of Ireland. Erin goes to Ireland to assist Tom in his medical practice and to find a cure for Tom. She is a rather stubborn, single-minded lady who has known little but school and medicine in her life. She first meets Michael when Tom picks her up at the airport. Michael is a best friend of Tom's as well and he has accompanied Tom to assist in the driving. Erin recognizes Michael immediately although they have never meet. He is quite a celebrity as a photojournalist and she casts him in the same mold as all journalists - only out to record the horrors of the world on film and make themselves famous in the process. Michael and Erin clash almost immediately. It is difficult for them both to recognize any attraction between them. I found the first half of the book to be very slow and somewhat tedious. I made a few notes as a read and read, hoping to finally find the story moving forward. Page 181 - I must consider Ross's books as more fiction than romance. It's page 181 and the leads don't even really think they are attracted to one another yet. At this point, this book would be no more than a three star review. Page 230 - I still don't like Erin, the heroine. She has just made such an immature, bratty, and unfeeling remark to the hero that I feel like giving up reading anymore of this book. I continued reading however, and thank goodness I did because the last one-quarter of the book was tender and intriguing reading. Erin makes a sudden and almost unbelievable shift in her attitude towards Michael and life in general. But it allows the romance to develop and Michael's daughter gradually assumes a larger role in the story. If Fair Haven had been my first Ross book, it would have been difficult for me to read another. However, A Woman's Heart was my first Ross book and so precious that I will still seek more of her books for reading.

Wonderfully written:
This is a beautifully written story, full of humor, passion, romance, love, and folklore. I could hear the lilt of the Irish brogue in my head, and I was drawn inexorably into the lives of the people of Castlelough. I've read the other books in this setting, each a great read, but this is my favorite. Well worth the time. JoAnn Ross is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.