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84 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story you can feel!, May 25, 2001
Yvonne is a successful entrepeneur with a life full of friends, work, and girls to mentor. But Yvonne's success has come at a high cost--not the phsyical anguish evidenced by scars from a terrible car wreck in her childhood, but the emotional trauma of being the only member of her family to survive that wreck. She has locked part of her heart away for good--or so she thinks, until she meets a sexy business consultant named Michael.Michael thinks he has locked his heart away, too. After being used and discarded by his beloved ex-wife to whom he tried to give everything, Michael adopts a shallow playboy image as a defensive measure. No emotional entanglements, just a little fun then cut and run. He promises that no woman will ever have an advantage over him again. Fortunately for the reader, such promises of the heart are made to be broken. When Michael fills in for a friend who was to collect Yvonne at the airport, immediate sparks fly between the two. Michael introduces Yvonne to physical love, accepting her scars and helping her to see beyond them. Yvonne allows Michael to relax and be himself without fear of rejection or manipulation. She frustrates him, though, when she won't let him into her private pain as he let her into his. They both battle their fear of caring too much for another human being, finding they can't turn away from the warmth they find in each other's arms. A no-strings affair seems the perfect solution. Except that, soon, it isn't nearly enough. And Yvonne and Michael have to fight not only the demons of the past but the jealous spectres of the present--if they are brave enough to embrace the future. The plot flows almost seamlessly and the author's use of language is wonderful. Sentences are well-crafted, words well-placed, to deliver maximum impact. And page after page, they do deliver. I have rarely felt as connected to characters and situations as I did those in this novel. Glass also does an excellent job of avoiding cliches and stereotypes. There are no white parents horrified at the prospect of biracial grandchildren and no black sister-girls warning about "the only thing a white man wants." There are, however, excellent portrayals of three-dimensional people with valid concerns and honest reactions. One of the book's strengths is that Glass's focus never veers from the romance into the land of social soapbox. Race is dealt with as one issue in a relationship, just like whether to have kids, where to live, the ex who won't go away, or religious differences. It never becomes the defining factor, which makes for a very realistic read. From the opening airplane scene, the reader has a distinct sense of these characters as living, loving human beings, and delving into their psyches proves a fascinating exercise. We feel their joy, their trepidation and their triumph, and we finally close the back cover having made new friends. What a pleasure it is to find a new author with Seressia Glass's talent!
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