Customer Reviews

Mirror Blue

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4 star:		(1)
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Thomma Lyn Grindstaff is a wonderful writer. She knows how to craft a story well, make you laugh, make you cry, make you hate, make you fall in love, and make you to keep reading to the end. Her writing is seamless.

Aphra Porter is an independent young woman with dreams and crushes that come true when she meets and falls in love with a famous author, Isaac Lightfoot, twenty years her senior. Her idol since childhood. Her mentor.

I fell in love with Isaac right along with Aphra. And she's a biker chic--woo hoo! On the side. A web designer in real life. The fact that Aphra and Isaac are both in love with their Harley's gives the story more meaning. A common ground outside of their passion for each other.

The ex-wife factor in this story is well played--well written. Norma is someone you're supposed to hate the mention of. Her character is showy and bitchy. Just what an ex should be, right? The son, his wife, and Isaac's own Momma treat Aphra's and Isaac's love for each other as nonexistent and they do everything in their power to destroy it.

Chapter 20 is where things turn. Get out the tissues. You'll need them until the end.

Some of my favorite lines:

"Silence drug itself out between them like a stone monolith pulled across grinding sand by bone-tired workers."

"Writing, as she'd commented to Isaac earlier, was the ultimate freedom. Worlds to create, bonds to form, lives to mold, How delightful it would be to recreate Isaac and herself in a universe of their mutual making, a universe of pure mind made up of the Ideal Forms which reflected as spectral shadows on the walls of the cave of their everyday lives--a realm where their love, unfettered and unhindered, might be given its fullest expression. With no Norma. No First Family. A place where Isaac was and ever would be hers. All hers."

And of course there are cats in this story. Two: Pilar and Santiago. They have a delightful and supportive roll in the lives of Aphra and Isaac. It's just natural that they would be there for Aphra. And Isaac.

A must read!

I phenomenal book by an incredibly talented writer. You can see the characters as they climb out of the pages and onto their Harleys. The depth of emotion you'll feel at the end will both surprise and comfort the reader, and make them want more.

Imagine if Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Julie & Julia,) had just published her first novel.

Friends, "Mirror Blue" is such a first novel!!

What a wonderful, wonderful witty and wise tale. With enough depth and heart for any 10 debut novels put together.

When I think of Mirror Blue I think -- longing, waiting, charm, humor, deep thoughts, intrigue, heartbreak and triumph via characters I easily easily grew to love and root for.

The story flowed like a dream of delights on many levels, written in highly original, often poetic prose, with a plot that kept me rooted and rapt from the first sentence to the last.

I can totally see it as a gripping movie!

I just loved it, and if I hadn't loaned it to a friend, I'd probably start reading it again today.

Sometimes our pre-conceived notions are the biggest threat to our happiness.

Aphra and Isaac are level-headed achievers with a similar love of books, animals, and Harleys. They share so much common ground that the potential for romance is unmistakable, but due to the difference in their ages, they face an unusual amount of opposition. What makes Mirror Blue different from the usual December-May romance is that the biggest obstacle isn't Isaac's ex-wife or the disapproval of Aphra's family, but the preconceived ideas the two protagonists bring to the relationship.

Aphra and Issac each have moments in which they can be exasperating in their certainty that they each know what the other really wants, in spite of clear signs to the contrary. A reader would be mistaken, however, to think that these are artificial problems inserted into the text for dramatic effect. Grindstaff is making an important point, which is that obstacles of our own making are what often separate us from happiness.

Because Mirror Blue is a romance, Grindstaff lets Aphra and Issac find a way beyond their misconceptions to a place where they can see the truth of what they've found in each other. We should all be so lucky.

Anyone who has ever been baffled by a friend or lover who misread them completely will appreciate the core truth of Grindstaff's literary romance. This is a writer who understands the ways of both heart and mind, and isn't afraid to explore that place where they meet.

Aspiring to everything Aphra - a successful web-designer with so many more possibilities, at last meets the author that has changed her life. Isaac is a prolific author, who's Vietnam experiences had an important role in forming his perceptions. Somehow, they see the unlikely characters within one another .. but fan and star rarely find true middle ground to meet.

Yet, in their conversations, they find many points to share. Even their vehicles, paralleling themselves, somehow show a strange, tenuous connection between the two of them. There is no denying the age difference, and no escaping the disapproval of certain other people. Coping, and discussing the issues allows them to share a problem, and instead of driving a wedge between them, serves to give them another point to share.

Even so, a melancholy air hangs over this work, almost as if we, too, cannot quite see how this relationship can work. Surely, the two are so vastly different? For Aphra, with her almost life-long study of Isaac's work, and her fan-like knowledge of his background, this cannot be a healthy future. We expect doom. Grindstaff's literary style even contributes; both to the slow pace and the disquieting sense that they cannot truly have found one another.

Thomma Grindstaff's work is more slowly paced and introspective than much in the way of today's romances, yet the many layers of depth here have appeal. The story is plausible, and the characters' interaction and growth is both plausible and pleasurable. Grindstaff's work offers a certain insightful, even visceral understanding of the human heart.

[...]

Cats. Motorcycles. Literature. Love!

Ms. Grindstaff combines these charming elements in a contemporary love story that is filled with twists and turns. Rich in metaphor and likable characters (both human and animal) this book will tug at your heart strings!

Author, Grindstaff, give a poignant read, a warm and touching southern literary which thoroughly engages the reader. Thumbs up!