Review: Opposites attract a lot of trouble
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2014
Carolyn Hart's life is one gigantic mess. She's never been able to figure out what she truly wants to do in life. She's flitted from one potential career to another, with her affluent father footing the bill -- until now. Carolyn is a shopaholic, constantly putting herself in credit card hell from impulse buying on the Home Shopping Channel. She can't bear to run to her father for yet another bailout, but on a teacher's aide salary, what other option does she have? Her boss has the perfect answer: Carolyn will write a children's book as a fundraiser for the school. It seems like a quick way to earn some needed cash, but Carolyn's unfiltered remarks put her on the short end of the negotiating stick simply to keep her job.Enter Mason Dixon, an eccentric cartoonist/artist with a bristly attitude. He's been drafted as illustrator for the children's book Carolyn is expected to write. It's a favor to pay back his aunt, who is one of the school's benefactors.  Mason has no use for elementary school teachers with no creative passion, and that's exactly how he pegs Carolyn at their first meeting.Carolyn is caught in the middle. She can't afford to turn down this little job, but she also takes an instant dislike to moody, broody Mason. They have what's left of the summer to write and illustrate this book, so the two end up sharing a small cabin out in the middle of nowhere to get this thing done.  Somewhere along the way, some major chemistry begins to build.The relationship between these two is a series of stumbles and saves as each tries to make sense of their situation and lives, before their time together runs out. Prejudices and preconceptions are shattered along the way, until Carolyn's penchant for spending more than she makes ensnares Mason. Will it be enough of a wake-up call for her to recognize she has a serious problem and needs help? And will Mason drop out of her life forever because of what she's done to him?Carolyn and Mason are great characters. They have a lot hiding inside their skins.  I wish the book had been longer, to reveal more about them, to play up Carolyn's addiction and Mason's "disabilities" more.