Not a Hollywood Romance
- lesleydouglassauth
- May 1, 2017
- 3 min read
“You fucked me and dumped me.”
In the typical romance novel, like the typical Hollywood version of a love story, the chronology is: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. By page four of One Hot December, with six words, popular erotic romance novelist Tiffany Reisz disposes of the first three of those steps. So what’s left? The answer is: a very good love story. The quotation should also be a tip-off to the reader: if rough language and explicit sex are not for you, then this story is not for you. But then, why are you in the erotic fiction section of the bookstore, or indeed reading this review?
The main character is Veronica “Flash” Redding. Flash is not your typical delicate female protagonist; she is a welder for a construction company as well as a talented, if undiscovered, metal sculptress in her spare time. The point of view is hers, with the reader privy to her thoughts. Flash's love interest, Ian Asher, is a wealthy businessman who is born to the purple. He also happens to be her boss.
Ian is at variance with the formula as well. Usually, the rich guy is a heel, a “bad boy” who is competing with a common suitor for the lady. This stock character is absent from this story, and Ian has none of the typical nefarious motives. The reader knows this because in the scenes when Ian is with Flash, the reader gets to know his thoughts as well. And as we do with Flash, by the end of the first chapter, the reader will like Ian.
Being privy to their thoughts, the omniscient reader learns that they love each other, but are unsure whether that love is reciprocal. Anyone who has ever fallen in love knows the agony of that uncertainty and can identify with their emotions. The erstwhile lover’s reticence is born of the pain they both felt at having their relationship end after a single tryst: hers at having been "dumped," and his at being forced to take action due to their employee-employer relationship. As the story progressed, I did eventually become exasperated at their seeming obtuseness regarding the other’s true feelings, but I suspect this annoyance was the author’s intent. The characters are well drawn and their emotions realistic. I found myself cheering for both of them from my all-seeing vantage point.
Taking place over a three-week period before Christmas and set in the Portland-Mt Hood area of Oregon, Ms. Reisz seasons the story with interesting and accurate (I am familiar with the area myself) detail about the culture and geography of the region. It is delivered in a clean and literate style that carries the reader right along the story line without ever lagging or bogging down. Also, hinted at as the story progresses are elements of dominance and submission in their relationship. But how this dynamic manifests itself with these characters doesn’t emerge until chapter five, and as is her style, Reisz throws in this wrinkle in a way that caught me completely by surprise. By this point in the story, I thought I knew these characters pretty well, but it turned out I didn’t.
So how do these star-crossed lovers (the allusion to Shakespeare is the author’s, not mine) get back together? Or do they? You can never be sure with Ms. Reisz because she loves to throw the reader curveballs. It's the 3-2 pitch with men on base, and you know it will have to be a fastball down the middle, so you dig in and wait for it. Then she throws a slow curveball, and you strike out swinging. I’ll let readers discover the curves and strike out on their own. It’s a fun part of the story, and the reader won’t know the outcome until the last paragraphs of the novel.
In the interest of full disclosure, I happen to know Tiffany Reisz, but lest the reader think I am writing a positive review as a favor for a friend, I am not. I do not write negative reviews. If I don’t like a story, rather than pan it, I simply don’t review it. This novel, on the other hand, is a good one. A fast read, like any good story, there are nuances that the reader may not catch, except subliminally, the first time through. But the second read will be every bit as enjoyable as the first because one can truly enjoy being with these two characters on their journey.
-Lesley Douglass, May 2017
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