 Contemporary Romance |
RENDEZVOUS WITH FATE Jeanne Sumerix Genesis Press February 2001 (3) Jeanette Cogdell |
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PLOT SYNOPSIS: |
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REVIEW: |
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RENDEZVOUS WITH FATE is a second chance romance story. Leela Taylor and Jack Whitman met when she was a freshman and he was in grad school at Central Michigan University. They dated for all of 3 weeks, not knowing each other’s last names, before Leela informs Jack of her plans to leave school. They argue and she walks out. Not wanting to leave things the way they were between them, she goes to see him before she leaves town. After they spent 2 days in bed, Leela leaves a very angry and bitter Jack for DC, where she has a job “helping people”. Seven months later, she returns to college pregnant only to find that Jack has left with another woman. The book begins 19 years later with Leela finally going back to school. Her history teacher turns out to be John Whitman, her old lover, Jack. She pretends not to recognize him until Jack confirms his identity. Leela is still angry with Jack for what happened between them. She has not let another man get close to her since then and hates that after all these years; she is still attracted to Jack. She avoids him at every turn, fearing that he will find out he has an 18-year-old son. Jack
is shocked when he sees Leela in class. A
mask of stone comes over him, for he too is still very angry.
He thought he was over the past, but after seeing her, her learns that he
isn’t. Jack never married and
realizes that Leela was the reason why. He
tries to talk to her to resolve their issues and maybe try again, but Leelas was
not interested. Besides, Jack is
dating (even considered marrying, before seeing Leela again) one of his
colleagues. After
witnessing another man proposing to Leela, Jack determines to go after her and
to not lose her again. He forces
Leela to meet with him by appointing himself her advisor.
After a meeting in his office, Leela accidentally leaves her purse.
When Jack checks the contents for the owner’s identification, not only
does he find Leela’s driver’s license, but he spots a picture of a young man
who could have been him at that age. He
knew Leela had a son, but was shocked to find that he did too. The prologue was weak in establishing a bond between these two, which made it hard to believe in their relationship. In the first scene they’re arguing in a restaurant about which direction their relationship should take. The next scene finds them in bed. They speak of being in love, but I’m sorry folks, I just “ain’t” feeling the love here. The
rest of the book is pretty predictable. Jack
confronts Leela. They keep the
truth from their son. Jack and
Leela start their love affair again before settling their past.
They finally tell their son, etc. etc. etc. The
story moved at a leisurely pace even dragging at some points.
The back cover insinuates that the other persons Leela and Jack were
involved with would cause friction to keep them apart.
This is what coerced me to continue to read.
Jack’s ex girlfriend, Nora, was bound and determined to get him back.
Her character’s demeanor is what added the most interest to this story. I never did get the general idea as to what Leela left college to do. It was mentioned that her time in DC was “not good”, but it was never explained as to what happened there besides her finding out she was pregnant. RENDEZVOUS WITH FATE is the first book I’ve read by Ms. Sumerix. |
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26th March 2001 |
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