Reviewed by Charles Remington for Readers' Favorite

New York-based architect Holly Williams flies to Boston, England to visit her mother who has been put in a nursing home, just days before Hurricane Diana destroys a large portion of the city. The year is 2040 and Holly’s Hurricane by Marie Carter tells how sixty-year-old Holly finds a return to New York almost impossible due to the destruction while having to adapt to a very different life in the country of her birth. But while coming to terms with her enforced provincial style of living, she begins to have strange dreams about the history and lost architecture of New York - dreams in which she visits, among others, the original Penn Station, Barnum’s Museum and the Crystal Palace. These dreams are sometimes frightening, sometimes enlightening, but slowly alter her professional views on the intrinsic significance and preservation of historic buildings, views which are shared by actor and tour guide Orlando, an attractive younger man in whom Holly confides and to whom she is drawn. Worried about the age difference, however, she maintains a reserved distance and with her mother deteriorating in her nursing home, could romance possibly blossom? And beyond that, can she ever get back to the city that she loves?

Holly’s Hurricane is a charming and unusual tale which blends family, future, history and romance in a gentle story that will warm your heart. Marie Carter has created a solid cast of characters and a story line which, although stretched over many time zones and canvases, keeps one enthralled. The neatly constructed plot allows the narrative threads to flow at a brisk pace, with the historical vignettes providing just enough colour to whet the appetite. I thoroughly enjoyed Holly’s Hurricane and learned a lot about New York in the process. I do not hesitate to recommend it and wish Marie Carter every success with a book which I would not be surprised to see also as a film or TV series.