Craft/Hudson-Smith/Sims

BET/Arabesque

1-58314-319-X

January 2002

(2+) Leslie Cannon

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

REVIEW: 

LOVE IN BLOOM is Arabesque’s Valentine’s Day Anthology featuring stories regarding first love and second chances at love.

In Francine Craft’s “Love’s Masquerade,” Maya Williams is preparing for the annual Valentine’s Day ball that her company helps co-sponsor, when she is reunited with an old high school friend, Chris St. John.  Both divorcees, Chris and Maya, find themselves instantly attracted to each other.

In “Love’s Masquerade,” Ms. Craft attempts to show how damaging the scars left by divorce can be from the male perspective.    She gets off to a very powerful start in a scene that takes place just after Chris first sees Maya again.  In that scene Chris’ daughter says, “Dad, you look happy and sad. How’d you do that?”  This question asked by a ten year old, instantly tugged at my heart-strings, I felt an “ahhh,” deep in the pit of my stomach.  I was prepared to hate the woman who caused Chris’ daughter to see such pain and torment on her father’s face.  The story, however, did not provide enough detail to retain my empathy, which was surprising given the extensive imagery provided for other parts of the story.  Craft’s description of the ballroom, music and the attendees’ costumes titillated my senses, and I was there at the ball enjoying the festivities along with the other guests.  Her words to show the pompous attitude of Maya’s ex-husband were so carefully weaved together that I literally balled my fists at my side prepared to punch the guy for being such a jerk.  It is more of this type of detail I needed to see for Chris’ ex-wife to understand why Chris had such a big hole in his heart.

In “Forbidden Fantasy,” Linda Hudson-Smith weaves a passionate tale of the power of first love.   Social worker, Ashleigh Ayers, has loved football star Austin Carrington since she was a girl of twelve years old, and he a boy of sixteen.  It is aboard a Caribbean cruise that the two are reunited.  But so many things are different, and the gulf separating the two is as wide as the sea upon which they are traveling.

One might question how a woman could still consider herself in love with a man she met when she was 12 and had not had any personal contact with in well over 12 years, and be quite skeptical of a storyline that used such a far fetched idea.  Yet Hudson-Smith’s account of the last childhood encounter between Ashleigh and Austin showed such tenderness, such innocence and love in its purest form, that any skepticism is quickly erased, and the idea couldn’t have seemed any more natural than if the two had been involved in weekly phone conversations.  This is the power Hudson-Smith has with words; a power she masterfully uses throughout this tale of secrets, deception, mistrust and love.  I took my first ‘cruise’ thanks to Hudson-Smith’s powerful imagery.  I could feel the swaying ship, the mist of water blowing in Ashleigh’s face and even envision the array of delicacies on the midnight buffet.

Hudson-Smith’s command for the written word turns what very well could have been a ‘mission impossible,’ into a ‘mission accomplished’, as she shows love’s ability to deal with all sorts of external factors, even the unpleasant ones.  She weaves a story so filled with love, passion and mystery that readers will find themselves proclaiming out loud, “ahhh, that’s so sweet.”  By the story’s end, they will be headed to their computers, pleading with Ms. Hudson-Smith for a sequel. 

In “Teacher’s Pet,” literature professor Bethany Porter risks her professional career and reputation for a chance at love with a former acquaintance. Having decided that one is never too old to learn, millionaire Colin Armstrong returns to Connecticut to attend Baylor College.  Not soon after his return, Colin not only finds himself in Bethany’s classroom, but also her bedroom; a fact that brings Bethany’s professional ethics into question.

True to form, Janice Sims provides us with some interesting twists and turns with her usual touch of humor.  The scene in which she first introduces Bethany and Colin has a nice feel to it that sweetly lures the readers into the story.  Ms. Sims generously spreads the humor throughout the remainder of the story while depicting not just a budding and passionate romance between Bethany and Colin, but also a strong, able-to-hang-out-and-laugh friendship as well.  You see the friendship aspect in the way Colin is able to talk very openly with Bethany about the failure of his previous marriage, and she is able to joke with him and help him see the humorous side of an otherwise painful situation.  Ms. Sims’ strategic intertwining of the characters’ thoughts in between character dialogue is another gift she possesses.  For it is in the character’s thoughts that you see some of Ms. Sims’ greatest humor.  The pace for “Teacher’s Pet,” however, was a bit too fast for me.  A couple of scene transitions occurred so rapidly I found myself re-reading thinking I had missed a sentence or two.    

LOVE IN BLOOM was somewhat lacking the usual “punch” I’ve come to expect from Arabesque’s Anthologies.   I didn’t get that overall, “Wow,” feeling I’m used to having upon completing one of the anthologies.  It was more of an “umm, okay” feeling instead.  “Love’s Masquerade,” and “Teacher’s Pet,” had great story ideas, but the development of the ideas needed more space than that allotted by a novella, and as a result the reader is not allowed to see enough of the psych of the main characters; a necessity if we are expected to empathize with the characters’ dilemmas.

leslie@romanceincolor.net (27th January 2002)