California Angel

Toy Johnson, a generous woman from Southern California, realizes that the life she lives in her dreams is an alternate reality in which she heroically saves children from death, and comes to realize a celestial calling. 125,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild Alt. Tour.

In a surprising departure from her bestselling legal thrillers (Mitigating Circumstances, etc.), Rosenberg tells a warmhearted story of divine intervention and angelic miracles. Protagonist Toy Johnson is a charismatic teacher who insists on thinking positively about the futures of the underprivileged children in her inner-city school in Santa Ana, Calif. Though Toy is beautiful (she has "flaming red hair"; her skin is "as translucent as the finest silk") and wealthy, she is unhappy: she has been unable to conceive, and her surgeon husband does not sympathize with her need to donate money to the needy families of her young charges. Idealistic Toy craves "magic, miracles, overnight solutions." She has had this sense of mission since the day she suffered cardiac arrest, when she had a vision in which she helped an autistic boy. Now, having decided that she needs some space to consider a separation from her husband, Toy goes to New York, where she suffers recurrences of cardiac arrest, each time having vivid dreams of saving children from grave danger. Yet these children turn out to be real, and mounting evidence indicates that her lifesaving actions may occur during out-of-body astral projections. Soon Toy understands that she is an angel, deputized on missions of mercy. Rosenberg's fervid, exalted prose often soars to melodramatic heights, and her basic premise requires the same kind of belief that draws readers to The Celestine Prophecy. She eschews heavy-handed sermonizing, however, and intriguing plot twists keep the narrative moving briskly. Literary Guild main selection; audio rights to Penguin Highbridge; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Toy Johnson, a teacher at an urban Los Angeles school who cannot resist helping children in trouble, has strange but realistic dreams in which she aids children around the world. As her marriage to a wealthy, selfish doctor falters, Toy begins to experience heart problems, during which these strange dreams become so vivid that she bears physical scars afterward. During a visit to New York City, her physical problems and dream sequences reach a peak after she is arrested for kidnapping a child in Kansas whom she dreamed she saved from a fire. A mysterious and ethereal transit cop may be her only salvation. In a departure from her best-selling suspense tales like Mitigating Circumstances (LJ 12/92), Rosenberg offers a well-written work of hope and faith that is sure to be popular. Highly recommended for public libraries. [Literary Guild alternate; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/94.]-Heather Blenkinsopp, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
--Heather Blenkinsopp, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rosenberg, who is known for her best-selling crime novels, including Mitigating Circumstances (1992), heads heavenward in a book that can only be described as a cross between Judith Krantz and Og Mandino. Toy Johnson is a schoolteacher who takes her students to her heart, so much so that she often gives them money (much to the disgust of her surgeon husband). In her dreams, Toy does even more, and she specifically remembers visiting one autistic boy and opening his world to relative normality. But this is no dream, because Raymond is that boy, now a young artist, and his paintings are filled with images of the red-haired woman in the California Angels T-shirt. When Toy goes to New York with a friend, her nocturnal visits to young children come more frequently, and soon Toy begins to realize they are more than dreams. Of course, in the modern world, no good deed goes unpunished. Toy's aid to children in trouble is noticed, and Toy is branded as a child abuser. There's no doubt that Rosenberg knows how to spin a yarn, but she really does go over the top here, culminating with Toy's fatal heart attack (every child-visiting dream is precipitated by a mild heart glitch). The heavenly host is pleased by her arrival in heaven: "We've been a little shorthanded in California lately. Not enough good prospects applying for the job. . . . If things don't get better soon, the Boss might get really angry. But that's okay. You're going to do real good, Toy." Like Toy herself, the book has its heart in the right place, but at least a few readers will probably wind up giggling rather than weeping. Ilene Cooper