WHAT WE DID FOR LOVE: Teresa McClain-Watson
BET/Sepia
July 2004
SYNOPSIS: The eagerly anticipated sequel to the engaging and charming novel LOOSE LIPS.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: (4+) Alvin Romer
REVIEW: It bordered on obsession,” the author wrote on the very first page of her novel, What We Did For Love…and so it was. Teresa McClain-Watson tells what was done for love in a story in riveting fashion with nothing left out and everything expected to keep you spell-bound.
I found plenty to laud in reading this latest offering by Ms McClain-Watson. Namely, how she weaves such a compelling plot around Benjamin Braddock her conservative and taciturn Judge, and his ‘shoot from the hip’ journalist girlfriend who flees Florida after a scandal broke involving the Judge. Subsequently Josie’s jealous nature and her penchant for jumping to conclusions perceives incriminating evidence suggesting that Ben is having an affair that forces the story into another strata – a game of betrayal and deceptive derring-do. Obsession blinded by misguided intent where trust and friendship is allowed to bait hooks for selfish lust, is always fodder for a good story, not to mention revenge and the properties thereof.
Whew! Let’s set the stage for this suspenseful love story: The more things change, the more they remain the same as personal and professional angst rear its head further defining what must be done to escape the past. This is a love story full of intrigue keeping you on the edge of your seat wondering if turbulence between the two will balance itself, or will their opposite personalities blow everything beyond repair.
You were first introduced to the pair in the author’s forerunner book, Loose Lips. Ben is a well-to-do professional, dour and prone to an impassive countenance except when Josie touches a nerve…wants nothing more than to forget prior problems. Josie, on the other hand is temperamental, bodacious and flighty, which causes her more problems she can’t handle. She loves Ben unconditionally much to the chagrin of would-be suitor Duece Jefferson who has an agenda all his own. It’s Deuce’s yearning for Josie that allows a third element to take this story to another level and give the plot equal billing to the setting the author so diligently produced.
If you enjoy suspense where love is concerned then read this book and discover the unique story-telling talent that this author brings to the reading public. The storyline is top-notch and congruent with plot and setting. My only regret involves the author deciding not to explore more of that third element in further coloring and enhancing secondary characters. This, however, does not diminish this superb book. Read it and enjoy!
alvin@romanceincolor.com (10th September 2004)