title: Minding Frankie
author:  Maeve Binchy 
description: Reading a Maeve Binchy novel is like settling in for a cozy visit with an old friend. In vintage Binchy style, a cast of colorfully eccentric characters living in a snug Dublin neighborhood seamlessly weave in and out of each others lives, united by family, faith, friendship, and community. When a young alcoholic learns he has fathered a child with a dying woman, he must step into the role of father, protector, and provider to his infant daughter, Frankie, in a matter of weeks. Determined to succeed, though totally unprepared for his new responsibilities, Noel gets an essential assist from his visiting American cousin. Exercising her tremendous gifts of organization and insight, Emily cobbles together a neighborhood support system, featuring a few familiar faces from previous Binchy books. As everybody begins to mind Frankie, a suspicious social worker pokes her nose in where it doesnt belong, attempting to dredge up any dirt she can on Noel and his slightly unorthodox network of babysitters. Readers will need a box of tissues handy as the good-hearted residents of St. Jarlaths Crescent prove that it does indeed take a village to raise a child. --Margaret Flanagan
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  ALL TOO POSSIBLE
  
  Frankie sighed. Her plan to keep him at arm’s length was working, so far. But
  the longer she stayed cooped up in this cabin with him, the harder it was to
  not stare at him and want to touch his handsome face and explore his long,
  lanky body.
  
  “If only we had a deck of cards,” she said, rousing a triumphant “Ah-ha!” from
  him. He slid off the bunk and delved into the side of his valise for a small
  box that turned out to be playing cards.
  
  They agreed on rummy and began to play. Several rounds of cards had Frankie
  well ahead in points and Reynard growing frustrated by her luck.
  
  “Perhaps we should try another game,” she said. “I’ve always been terrible at
  euchre, but I’ll try it if you’ll refresh my memory of the rules.”
  
  She turned out to be abominably lucky at euchre, too.
  
  With a huff of disgust, he looked up at her.
  
  “You, Frankie Bumgarten, are impossible.”
  
  It came out because she just couldn’t keep it in any longer.
  
  “That’s the problem, Reyna