Review: Lusty romp about independence and love
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
Reviewed by Pat Henshawfor TheRomanceReviews.comThree octogenarian grandmothers take on a bull-headed couple in a lusty romp about independence and love.Mike Haddican has loved Kyra Brims since she arrived in the small town of Alden when they were in grade school. They went together in high school and lived together for three years in college. But when Mike asked Kyra to marry him, she turned him down saying that she wanted to see the world and become a dancer, not ever get married.Three years later at a funeral, after he sees her with a husband and infant, Mike who still loves Kyra goes through a major funk, getting tattooed, having indiscriminate sex, and getting a penal piercing.Seven years later, Kyra is back in town, divorced, with her daughter Sam. Although she's a dance phenomenon, having been a mainstay on a dance with the stars television show and lead dancer and choreographer for a famous pop singer, she's broke, has an injured shoulder, and is looking for work. Mike's father hires her to teach aerobics classes at the family's gym, and the town's trio of grandmas, which includes Mike's grandma, who vows to get the couple back together.As typical in romances, Mike and Kyra's estrangement hinges on a big misunderstanding. Unraveling that and rehashing their past history take up enough ground that most readers will be as ready as the grandmas to bash the couple's heads together.Fortunately, the feisty grandmas add enough humor to keep the plot going, and the sex scenes between Mike and Kyra will keep readers turning pages.Mike's a typical Neanderthal romance hero, whose my-way-or-the-highway view of life shelters a bleeding heart. Everyone loves Mike despite his hard-headedness. He's wonderful with kids, sweet to his grandma, and tries to take care of everyone around him. He's super passionate and steadfastly loyal. When he loves, he loves forever.Kyra is a will-o-wisp. She believes in herself as a dancer, but not as a housewife. Because she feels she was abandoned as a child, even though she was raised in a stable home in the small town, she doesn't think she deserves Mike's love and a stable relationship. She's a bundle of contradictions who doesn't seem to warrant a reader's regard.The grannies with their cell phones producing salacious auto-text corrected messages and their plots to reunite Mike and Kyra are the glue that holds the often repetitive plot and one-note couple together.