Some Kind of Miracle

by Iris Rainer Dart

Cousins Dahlia and Sunny Gordon were best friends growing up, bound by a shared love for making music that was as pure, powerful, and radiant as the California sunshine. When Dahlia's soulful lyrics combined with Sunny's soaring melodies, magic happened, and they promised they would stick together all the way to the top. But a darkness was already descending on Sunny, one that would ultimately plunge her into a nightmare of solitude and schizophrenia. And after their lives were torn apart, a quarter of a century would pass before the cousins would meet again.

After long years of fruitless struggle, Dahlia still dreams of making it in the L.A. music business, a dream that comes to rest on one song. A lucky break has brought a composition she and Sunny wrote long ago to the attention of a powerful Hollywood producer. Desperate for success, Dahlia must find her cousin in order to secure the rights to the song that will win her fame and great fortune.But the world Sunny Gordon now inhabits is a place of madness and despair, and her obstinate refusal to sign a contract only infuriates Dahlia and strengthens her resolve. There are no depths Dahlia will not sink to in order to get what she wants -- even if it means moving her tragically damaged cousin, demons and all, into her own home.

Yet selfish motives and greed are, remarkably, leading Dahlia somewhere she never imagined she'd go. For the first time since she was a girl -- and perhaps the first time ever -- she will have to put someone else's needs before her own, and her life will be unexpectedly transformed in the process.

And sometimes, even when real life reaches its cruelest and lowest ebb, miracles do happen ...

Genres: Fiction, Romance

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2003

About the author

Iris Rainer Dart is the author of eight novels, including the much-beloved New York Times bestseller Beaches. The mother of two children, she lives in California with her husband.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok but unrealistic and everything turned out a little too perfectly at the end.

[Yazmin Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters didnt have much dimension to them and the storyline was very cookie cutter. Everything seemed to just magically work out and not because of effort

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really only 2.5 stars. Dahlia and her cousin, Sunny, were musical prodigies writing songs together when they were children but Sunny is mentally ill and is put in a mental hospital. Dahlia struggles to write songs on her own but just can't seem to get it. I never liked Dahlia. She had more dreams than ambitions and when there was a possibility of catching a break she figured she be buying a house with a pool and a new Jaguar instead of being realistic. I hated her when Helene died and she thought she was getting something in her will. She finally sells a song that she wrote with Sunny but she needs Sunny's signature on a contract. She finds her living in a run down halfway house and on impulse takes her home with her. After that things just wrap up too nicely with happily ever after. Sunny is cured, the music career takes off, Dahlia becomes a kind and caring person and her boyfriend's daughter loves her so much that she asks her to marry her father. Just like real life.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I truly disliked the main character. I’m not sure if that was the point, so in the last few pages when everything neatly came together the reader would would be delighted with her change of heart. But it was too little too late. After all the unrealistic things that had already happened, it just wasn’t enough.

[Anna Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any book where I want to repeatedly shake some bloody sense into the main character isn't going to get a good review from me.

Too much detail in many spots and then jumps of several weeks with no explanation. Situations that are important one minute and not the next.

[Jonjane Doe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chick Lit alert! By the author of Beaches!

Dahlia and her schizophrenic cousin Sunny wrote songs together as kids. Broke ass Dahlia needs her back to ensure sonwriting fame and fortune, but Sunny won’t sign anything.

It’s a very responsible book, containing a psychopharmacologist. Actually it’s all Pills & Boone and the sensible psych stuff is heavily coated in cotton candy clouds of froth. It’s one of those novels where plot + research = book and you can see the seams. It’s not badly written, it’s just …

Zzzzzzzzzz … read it if you’re bored, there aren’t any other books around and your TV is broken. Or idk, throw it at a duck or something …

Spoiler alert (harhar) – the fuckwittedly shiny happy ending has such a responsible little caveat that it reminded me of the disclaimer on a pack of smokes.

Don’t throw it at a duck. Ducks are nice.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman struggles to be a successful songwriter. She lets her ambitions hurt her relationships until she's forced to bring her schizophrenic cousin back into her life. The cousin helps her to tell the truth about herself while helping the cousin and giving her back a life she wouldn't have had otherwise.

It seems as though the woman's using her cousin, and to begin with she is, but a true relationship grows between the two. It's a hopeful story, in the end.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was alright. The unrealistic picture of "healing" for mental illness really irked me. Clearly it's fiction but everything was so "perfect" in the end I knew I was reading a book. Good fiction wraps you in the story so much that you forget it isn't a real thing and you aren't there. This is not that kind of book.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know much about mental health issues but if this is at all true to life it really is a miracle. Sometimes I got annoyed with dahlia and her obsession with wanting to make a lot of money. But maybe if I had to support myself I would be different.

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story about cousins and a friendship that survives through mental illness.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like books with psychiatric issues...this was so real!

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book. It's about a family dealing with mental illness. It was light and heartwarming. Something easy to read.

[Dianne Bowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Good - interesting family dynamics

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just couldn't get through this. The main character is obnoxious and so self-centered it's hard to stand.

[Eliza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Glad I only paid $0.99 for it.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting in that it mixes issues of mental illness with healing powers of music. It was an okay book but thought it was kind of bland reading.

[Shane Fritz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent much of the book disliking the main character but came to like her, appreciating her personal growth.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm about ready to give up on the adult section of the library