Review: "Love Redesigned" Shows How To Handle A Romance Novel; Jo Iles Is The Real Thing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2014
If you watch tennis or any other sport, you often hear the mixed metaphor -- rightly applied to boxers -- that someone is punching above their weight. In writing, it applies too. Usually, it applies to brand-new authors who are the "next greatest thing" or the "latest hot addition to the best-seller list applies to writing. Reviewers often wonder whether they have been punching above their weight.Many times a first-time author "punches above his weight" establishing himself or herself as the next "sure bet," however, they find their second or third novel just isn't up to the first -- they are "one-book writers," something like the classic "one-trick pony."Jo Iles isn't an author who needs to worry about that. After establishing herself in her first work, she has now published a new romance novel that shows she is maturing as writer who knows when to use a light touch and when a heavier hand is needed.For example, in Iles' latest, "Love Redesigned," you are sure of only one thing - it is a romance novel, the type of novel that so easily could have become a maudlin melodramatic romp through the lives of the key characters or with a little deft writing could become not only a romance novel, but one that could be so much more.Iles, whose writing ability was showcased by her first novel, showed that she has a deft hand at not only bringing her characters to life but her also a deft sense of timing. For example, there's a scene where the prime characters of the novel, Holly Percival, her boy Harry and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Daniel Webster, spend an afternoon as a family and Daniel realizes he wants to remain in Harry's and Holly's lives.He also realizes he really doesn't want to jump into a new life with his fiancee Miranda, who has turned up unexpectedly at his home for a surprise visit, just as he is returning home after an afternoon outing with his newly re-found wife and little boy.Miranda senses something has changed. She desperately wants to be THE Mrs. Webster, but she feels things are not quite the way they were. It is clear that, though his mother, the late Mrs. Webster, wanted Holly out of their lives, it has not quite happened. Oh, Daniel was happy enough but that was before his mother passed on and he discovered the stopped letters from Holly. She had tried to contact him and let him know of his son. That's the reason he sought out Holly, in the first place. It also makes him realize that he still had feelings for Holly. It was Mother who didn't think Holly was good enough for her pride and joy.Mother, it seems, had lied about Holly and had told Daniel that she just ran out on him, even though Holly had known she was expecting his baby.That is the foundation on which this book is built plus the natural attraction he feels for Holly every time he sees her. Of course, her rival wants to show Daniel just how wrong Holly is for him, but, she fails to reckon the boy in her thinking.Finally, at the crucial moment - his own engagement party to which his now ex- and son were invited - Holly can't find her little Harry and goes slightly berserk (as any parent will when they can't find their kids). A natural denouement, Daniel learns Miranda's true colors when she tells him not to worry about the little guy and that they always show up.That is just too much for him and a rather smooth bit of repartee and writing, we have Daniel simply turning on his heel to find Holly who is searching high and low for their son.They find him in the unlikeliest of places, but a place that has a certain symmetry for a 5-year-old and they put him to bed. It's at this point that the penultimate point occurs and Daniel declares his love for Holly, who has been waiting a long time to hear the words.Daniel actually gives quite some speech professing his feelings for Holly and, after a suitable wait, all she can manage is a "Wow!" Of course he wants to hear more - maybe trumpets sounding or rockets flying - but he only gets "Wow!" This is how most people would respond, but he's not ready for the next response a well-placed kiss.Through it all, Iles uses a deft hand on the throttle, holding back when it's time, and slowly opening it when it is needed, finally pushing it all the way to the firewall when it's time. She has all the tools that a modern writer needs to make it in this now highly fractured world of print, Internet and other outlets. As they say, she knows how use the tools she has and "fight above her class" all the time.