"Talk of the Town" by Mary Kay McComasThis romance novel from 1995 can be summarised very quickly:
Single mother and small-town resident Rosemary, diner waitress during the day and artist in her spare time, regularly visits a refuse center to find pieces for her metal sculptures. There, she meets recycling whiz Gary - much more than "just" a garbage man. For him, it is love at first sight; for Rosemary, allowing a man into her heart and her life after the mistakes and disappointments in her past is not so easy.
Almost as quickly as writing the summary, the book is read. There are some funny moments and the background info about waste-treatment and
recycling as well as the world of art and how and artist may approach his or her work reads competent enough to make me guess the author knew what she was talking about.
That, once again, two utterly gorgeous people who are clearly meant for each other have to overcome some obstacles before all ends in perfect
bliss, is obvious - if I was not prepared for that, I would have had to stop reading on page 2.
I have definitely read worse, but I could not bring myself to care much about Rosemary. Contrary to her claims of being an oh-so-hurt-and-modest
person, she sits on a very high horse when it comes to the man who is convinced she is The One for him. The way her character is described
otherwise in the book makes it very hard to believe that she of all people would feel embarrassed because of his job (which is way better
and earns him much more money than what he lets on at first). So, this one and only obstacle is really very much construed and not very credible.
Apart from that, this was light and easy reading during my train trips to and from work. Nothing I would want to spend money on, but as it was a free ebook, I can not complain - and for that, it was surprisingly well edited.
The author was new to me. She has her own website here.
There, I have found her biography rather interesting and was pleased to discover that she likes Georgette Heyer's novels.
I can't read romance novels, free or not. I certainly understand wanting light reading on the way to and from work, though! :)
ReplyDeleteI can read them, but after two or three, I need something more substantial, preferably non-fiction :-)
DeleteI read this since it was almost free and I wanted something light. This might have been a bit too light. I understand your criticism about a certain unreality about Rosemary's feelings about the job of garbageman...
ReplyDeleteA bit too light fits it, Kristi!
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