Musical prodigy Venus Arinelli's life shattered at the age of 19 when her father was arrested for anti-government activity. When he died of a heart attack a week later while in custody, Venus took her younger sister and ran from accusations and harassment. Ten years later, she's still running from the government agencies that are eager to place the blame on her every time a subversive group explodes a bomb in the United States.

Gib Cameron was a child of 5 when Venus's parents were married at Cameron Hall. Steeped in tradition, Gib's family is well respected and firmly rooted in American history, while Venus's is notorious and barely a generation away from immigration. But tragedy has come knocking on the venerable door of the Cameron stronghold high in the Tennessee hills, and the matriarchal great-aunt of the clan orders Gib to find the Arinelli sisters and bring them to the Hall. Shari Kirk and Max Arinelli were the first guests to stay there, and the great-aunt believes that their daughters hold the key to the survival of the Hall and the healing of her family.

Gib and Venus are worlds apart on the surface--she with her pierced navel, wild clothing, and career as a lounge musician, and he with his conservative clothing, schooling at the Citadel, and career as a Secret Service agent. But they are soul mates under their skins, for each is deeply honorable, wary of love, and fiercely protective of their families.

The two share in an arduous journey of the heart, searching the past to heal the present and find a future. They take with them a collection of fascinating, well-developed secondary characters in a story that mixes pathos with humor and is rich with human emotion, lush landscapes, and a plot so well conceived that it resonates like a finely tuned Steinway.


From 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, GibAa man who represents everything that tough Venus hatesAshows 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. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Ranked high on Bantam's summer list, this novel tells the story of a former piano prodigy forced by family tragedy to play pop music on the bar circuit, who has a last chance at redemption.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
A thick, goopy southern stew from veteran romancer Smith (A Place To Call Home, 1997, etc.), this time involving a touchy pianist, her dreamy sister, and a man fatefully intertwined with them both. Venus Arinelli holds a major grudge against the world: Ever since her left-wing father was accused of a political crime he didn't commitand died in prison--Venus has been struggling to escape the scrutiny of the FBI while she and sister Ella eke out a meager existence as nightclub performers. Enter Gib Cameron, ex-Marine and Secret Service agent, who has come to persuade the Arinelli sisters to return to his family's historic Tennessee inn. Thirty years earlier, Venus's parents were the first customers at Cameron Hall: They married there, and Venus was conceived on their wedding night. The tattered wedding picture of Venuss parents is the only remnant of her pampered life as a Louisiana quasi-princess. At first she refuses Gibs invitationshe despises his superpatriotic airbut then he reveals that he has money for her, left by her father. Once the sisters are in Tennessee, Ella succumbs to the hospitality heaped on them, while Venus keeps a cool distance from the sexy but brooding Gib. Meanwhile, the Camerons have their own troubles: When Gib and his brother Simon went to the sawmill to cut lumber for replacing the chapel floor, an argument led to a hideous accident--Simon was sawed in two by the blade and Gib's right hand was cruelly maimed. Thus Cameron Hall closed while the family grieved. Cousin Emory now wants to turn it into a resort, while Gib hopes to reopen it as it once was. And all believe that Venus and Ella are the key to the future. . . . A highly improbable storyline, along with an incessant harping on family loyalty, will quickly tire all but romance diehards. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"An enchanting story."
--Booklist

"Smith unspools wacky and wonderful lore."
--People

"Plan a day off if you pick up a Deborah Smith novel; they are as addicting as chocolate."
--The Advocate, Baton Rouge


Review
"An enchanting story."
--Booklist

"Smith unspools wacky and wonderful lore."
--People

"Plan a day off if you pick up a Deborah Smith novel; they are as addicting as chocolate."
--The Advocate, Baton Rouge

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

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)

Library Journal

Ranked high on Bantam's summer list, this novel tells the story of a former piano prodigy forced by family tragedy to play pop music on the bar circuit, who has a last chance at redemption.

Journal Constitution Atlanta

"Bittersweet" -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Chicago Tribune

"Beautiful"

Publishers Weekly