A Novel Proposal

 

Sadie teaches art at an elementary school, but on her breaks, she writes western novels.  Unfortunately, her publisher is not happy with her sales and wants her to branch into another genre--specifically romance.  Her best friend's mom owns a duplex on an island off the South Carolina coast and sets it up so that Sadie can go spend her summer writing without distractions.  The other half of the duplex is occupied by Sam, a man who wanted nothing but solitude for the summer. Sadie and Sam are polar opposites 

When Sadie's agent described what the publisher was looking for, she described the "romance novel formula" to a T. 

• Boy meets girl
• Boy gets girl
• Boy loses girl
• Boy and girl get back together again.  

Well, this is exactly the way the story played out, except in reverse--girl meets boy, girl gets boy, etc.  Denise Hunter has taken the basic romance formula and built a novel with it, but she's done it with more skill than the cheesy romances that usually follow this formula.  She has also woven in a bit of a mystery that keeps the reader engaged throughout the plot from beginning to end.  

In meeting the characters of this book, I got the impression that Sam was pretty curmudgeonly, while Sadie was over-the-top extrovert. Some of her actions early on bordered on the manic, but she calmed down by the end of the book.  The setting on an island right on the ocean makes me a little wistful for beaches and ocean waves.  The pupster, Rio, a malti-poo, was the icing on this wonderful cake.  

Solid Four Stars

Thomas Nelson Publishing provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.