When Venus Fell

The ties that bind us--to our families, to our pasts--are at the heart of this deeply engrossing story.  

Venus Arinelli saw her future as a concert pianist shattered when her father's life ended in disgrace.  Now Venus plays in cocktail lounges, sporting her survival skills like a suit of armor.  When a stranger emerges from her parents' long-ago past with an offer too good to refuse, Venus' suspicions flare up.

But Gib Cameron has a special mission.  He represents the Camerons of Tennessee--a family as rooted in American history and Southern soil as Venus' is notorious and fly-by-night.  Yet the Camerons, survivors of tragedy, need Venus for reasons that have to do with honor and loyalty and an almost mystical bond to their shared past.  And Gib, as hard-eyed a skeptic as Venus herself, has to persuade her to come to their mountain home.

Humor, sexiness, pathos, and surprises are all part of Deborah Smith's unique storytelling magic.  When Venus Fell will entrance readers with its tale of Venus's reluctant journey to Tennessee, where two well-guarded hearts, afraid to trust again, will find they've come home.

Home is wherever the heart leads....

The ties that bind us—to our families, to our pasts—are at the heart of this deeply engrossing story.  

Venus Arinelli saw her future as a concert pianist shattered when her father's life ended in disgrace.  Now Venus plays in cocktail lounges, sporting her survival skills like a suit of armor.  When a stranger emerges from her parents' long-ago past with an offer too good to refuse, Venus' suspicions flare up.

But Gib Cameron has a special mission.  He represents the Camerons of Tennessee—a family as rooted in American history and Southern soil as Venus' is notorious and fly-by-night.  Yet the Camerons, survivors of tragedy, need Venus for reasons that have to do with honor and loyalty and an almost mystical bond to their shared past.  And Gib, as hard-eyed a skeptic as Venus herself, has to persuade her to come to their mountain home.

Humor, sexiness, pathos, and surprises are all part of Deborah Smith's unique storytelling magic.  When Venus Fell will entrance readers with its tale of Venus's reluctant journey to Tennessee, where two well-guarded hearts, afraid to trust again, will find they've come home.

Publishers Weekly

Louisiana bohemian Venus Arinelli and Tennessee aristocrat Gib Cameron, the protagonists of this well-meaning but strained romance, come from very different, but equally tragic, backgrounds. Venus had her dreams of a career as a classical pianist dashed by scandal when her Japanese-Italian, nightclub-owner father died in prison, having been accused of murdering a federal judge. Gib became a member of the Secret Service after an IRA bomb killed his parents on vacation in England. Yet the families forged a bond when Venus's parents were married at the Cameron family inn in 1968, its first year of operation. Thirty years later, Giba man who represents everything that tough Venus hatesshows up, with a big surprise and a desperate proposition, at the bar where Venus and her dotty sister, Ella, are performing as lounge musicians. It seems Mr. Arinelli left his daughters $100,000, possibly dirty money, in the Camerons' hands. Gib will turn the money over to them, no questions asked, if they return to the inn and, by their presence, help him persuade his relatives not to sell. Smith (A Place to Call Home) comes on like Kaye Gibbons with humor; her tale of redemption and learning to trust again is by turns sad, funny and touching. But given the blithe improbability of the setup, Gib's earnest flag-waving and Venus's spitfire anti-establishment views do little to endear us to either character. (July)

Deborah Smith is the author of such well-loved novels as A Place to Call Home, Blue Willow, and Miracle. She lives in Georgia.