Born in Ice

July 31, 1995
Roberts's second installment in her Born In trilogy (after Born in Fire) takes the reader back to Ireland, where Brianna Concannon uncovers some unexpected and disturbing details about her deceased father. While trying to turn the attic of her bed-and-breakfast into another guest room, Brianna finds a stock certificate from a nonexistent company called Triquarter Mining--no great surprise, as the elder Concannon had always had a weakness for worthless ventures. More surprising is a set of old, passionate love letters written to her father 28 years before by a woman who was not Brianna's mother. This discovery is overshadowed by the arrival of famed mystery novelist Grayson Thane, who is to be her guest--and her lover (at least until his next novel is finished). The scope of Roberts's latest offering is limited to Brianna's and Gray's affair, leaving the reader impatient about fleeting references to footprints outside Brianna's window and a messy break-in at the B&B. Still, the pace of the book is smooth and even, and the writing captures the charisma and earthy charm of Ireland and the gentleness of its people while setting the tone for Born in Shame, the final story. (Aug.

August 1, 1995
Cool, capable, and thoroughly domestic, Brianna Concannon welcomes American mystery writer Grayson Thane to her County Clare bed-and-breakfast, never dreaming that she and this footloose, homeless-by-choice stranger could ever have anything in common, let alone fall in love. But they do-and then must come to terms with their separate pasts before they can put the future in perspective. This latest solid contemporary love story by Roberts is the second in her Irish trilogy (after Born in Fire, Jove, 1994). [Roberts lives in Keedysville, Md.]