Cresswell Falls by Kerry Belchambers

Publisher:        Blue Feather Books

Christina Brewster never expected to move back to her hometown Cresswell Falls permanently.  Since her parents' divorce, her time has been spent traveling with her mother and then following a very successful career in modeling.  Christina has retired from modeling however and on a trip home to visit her father, she agrees to take over running his successful realty company.  Alicia Sanders married the town sports hero who because a professional baseball player.  His long absences from home and inability to connect with Alicia and their young son ruined the marriage and now she wants to sell their home.  That is what brings Christina and Alicia together; then, they discover they have other interests in common.  Alicia has a talent for designing clothes and Christina sets them up in a company to promote her work.  There is also an attraction between them that confuses Alicia and worries Christina.  Christina thinks the way to deal with that is to push Alicia into the arms of a man, but Alicia eventually develops other plans.

Cresswell Falls is the debut novel for Kerry Belchambers and it's a better than average first book.  On the surface, it is a romance, but it covers issues beyond that.  Belchambers captures the problems of living in a small town where everyone knows you and everything you do.  The book is also about forgiving people for the past and the destructive power of words.  The biggest lesson though is about learning the difference between what you are responsible for and what you cannot control.  All of these can make a life productive or devastating, something Belchambers illustrates quite effectively.

This book has a slightly different pacing to it, which is subtle, but unique.  This might be due to the fact that Belchambers is an African living in Kenya and writing about a small town in the United States.  Why she chose to do this isn't stated in the book, but it gives it an interesting touch  Cresswell Falls is a good story with a few twists and a good pace, plus the characters are appealing and more realistic than in many books.  It shows that Kerry Belchambers has real promise and has produced a book worth reading.