What Matters Most

By Luanne Rice

Book Overview

With every New York Times bestseller, Luanne Rice illuminates yet another of the secret wonders of the heart. Her unforgettable evocations of family, friendship, and loves lost and won in such novels as The Edge of Winter , Sandcastles , and Summer of Roses give voice to our most powerful emotions. Now she brings back two of her most beloved characters to tell of their journey across the sea to unravel the mysteries of a shared past--and two undying love affairs.... What Matters Most Sister Bernadette Ignatius has returned to Ireland in the company of Tom Kelly to search for the past--and the son--they left behind. For it was here that these two long-ago lovers spent a season of magic before Bernadette's calling led her to a vocation as Mother Superior at Star of the Sea Academy on the sea-tossed Connecticut shore. For Tom, Bernadette's choice meant giving up his fortune and taking the job as caretaker at Star of the Sea, where he could be close to the woman he could no longer have but whom he never stopped loving. And while one miracle drew them apart, another is about to bring them together again. For somewhere in Dublin a young man named Seamus Sullivan is also on a search, dreaming of being reunited with his own first love, the only "family" he's ever known. They'd been inseparable growing up together at St. Augustine's Children's Home, until Kathleen Murphy's parents claimed her and she vanished across the sea to America. Now, in a Newport mansion, that very girl, grown to womanhood, works as a maid and waits with a faith that defies all reason for the miracle that will bring back the only boy she's ever loved. That miracle is at hand--but like most miracles, it can come only after the darkest of nights and the deepest of heartbreaks. For life can be as precarious as a walk along a cliff, and its greatest rewards reached only by those who dare to risk everything...for what matters most.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553589709
• ISBN13: 9780553589702
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!

I decided to give Luanne Rice another chance after I trashed her book Blue Moon. What Matters Most is incredible. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone! What a great story! Just keep the kleenex handy; you will need it. Great job!

Wonderful!

This was my first Luanne Rice book and it won't be my last. I couldn't put it down and I read it in one day. Even though the ending was devastating, I loved every minute of it.

I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

I discovered Luanne Rice only early this year, and SANDCASTLES was the first of her books that I read. I liked it so much that I started backtracking, reading all of her books. She has become one of my favorite writers, although there are some early books that I don't care for too much (ANGELS ALL OVER TOWN for one). However, WHAT MATTERS MOST is the Luanne Rice book I'll be talking about with everyone I know. The characters are delightful...as a Catholic with Irish roots, I felt a connection with the passion, loyalty, friendship, and love of these Irish characters. The intensity of their love for one another, the conflicting emotions of a nun whose femininity and human heart are revealed in ways many Catholics don't want to see or have been too indoctrinated in tradition to realize...powerful, emotional, heartrending stuff here. I couldn't put the book down, I could hardly see the last 30 or so pages through my tears, and I find myself dreaming of the characters as if they were real. As someone who grapples with the validity of certain mysticism in the Catholic tradition myself, I found that my mind was opened to the possibility of a faith that enormous and a heart that open. I am so impressed with Luanne Rice and WHAT MATTERS MOST that I plan to buy this book for all the women in my large, Irish Catholic family.