Review: Leftovers by Treva Harte
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2010
If I had to compare this very nice seasonal romance by Treva Harte to a painting, it would be an impressionist one. Maybe due to the length, a novella, or maybe due to the choice of the author to focus on the present more than the past, we don't have many details around the characters, but just an impression of who they were and what they now want. And more than a "thanksgiving" romance, this is a forgiving one.Both Paul than Emerson did wrong in the past, Paul was too young and hot-tempered to realize what he had before losing it, and Emerson had a too low self-esteem to grab for happiness, and to admit that a little fault on him didn't make him a total loser.Despite many arguments, tug in and tug off, and great makeover s ex, it's already 8 years that Paul and Emerson are "unofficially" a couple. They met in college, Paul a singer and Emerson a composer, they seemed perfect for each other; but when Paul was ready to spring the wings and fly, Emerson decided to remain grounded. They argued, Paul didn't ask, and Emerson didn't offer, and so, year after year, Paul is coming back to Emerson for Thanksgiving, they have great s ex and the morning after Paul is gone again. Only that this year both of them want to break the spell and change the course of their life.Being a romantic as I am, I feel a bit of regret for all the years Paul and Emerson lost, but, after all, it is probably better like that. If they managed to stay together so since moment one, both so young and inexperienced, probably they would have grown tired of each other soon after. In this way instead, both of them regarded their college love affair like the best years of their life and it remained the unfulfilled dream they now, as adults, want to realize. Now both of them are ready to commit, now both of them realized what they lost, and lucky for them, they are still young enough to enjoy their future together.As for their past history together, also the present is described more through flash of image than a real flow of events. The reader jump from a scene to another like he is shifting in time, and in the space of few pages he spent an year together with Paul and Emerson. Each scene, again, is made more of feelings and sensations than details, cold, warm, fear, love, this is what the reader perceive more than the visual image of the places. It's quite a strange novella, but very sweet and romantic.