Solid Soul (review)
Aug. 27th, 2006 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksAs I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I picked up Solid Soul after reading Monica Jackson’s blog – I felt bad for being lazy and unwilling make an effort to cull black romance from the larger section of black literature at my local bookstore. So I went to the library an dpicked up a book published by Kimani Press. I haven’t done much research, although I know that Kimani is an imprint of Harlequin. Kimani Press publishes several lines, and the book I picked up is a Kimani Romance, which looks (to me, based on reading 3 back blurbs only) to be a cross between a Silhouette Special Edition and a single title.
Solid Soul is the story of Kylie Hagan & Chance Steele. Kylie and her daughter, Tiffany, have recently relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, after Kylie’s job was downsized. She moved to Charlotte to be close to her best friend – her “real” family, because her blood family more or less abandoned her when she became pregnant as a teenager. Kylie has spent the last 15 years struggling as a single parent, and is now financially stable and utterly focused on her daughter. Much to her daughter’s frustration, because she (Tiffany) is tired of being warned about boys and sex. She decides that her mother needs to get a life, and with the help of her friend Marcus Steele, she’s going to fix that. The fix? Marcus’s father, Chance, a widower running the family business, Steele Corporation. The plan? Pretend to be madly in love, ready to do crazy things to be together. Thus, the parents have to communicate and come up with ways to calm them down and keep them from doing something drastic that might ruin their lives.
As much as Chance and Kylie are worried about their children, they are immediately attracted to each other in a combustible kind of way. Jackson did a fantastic job of building up the tension between the two of them. (I especially liked the late night phone conversations.) They have to balance setting a good example for their children with their attraction.
What did I like about the book? Well, I really liked that Chance and Kylie act like parents. Their children aren’t just set pieces, making obligatory appearances for the sake of giving them the title “parent”. Kylie and Tiffany have a great relationship, and love each other, despite having very clear-eyed views of each other’s faults and weaknesses. Same with Chance and Marcus. As characters, Chance and Kylie are both well drawn, although I found the matching family histories – both children the result of teenaged pregnancies, although obviously different outcomes -- a little coincidental, although I guess that happens. One qualm – Kylie has only ever had sex with the teenaged boyfriend who got her pregnant. Apparently, she never felt the urge. I know single parenthood is hard on the love life, but it really bothers me when authors make parents asexual beings. Huh, hello? That’s how they got to be parents in the first place.
What didn’t I like? Well, despite being very involved parents, Kylie & Chance never pay much attention to the fact that Marcus and Tiffany spend very little time together outside of school, despite being madly in love and ready to run away together. They don’t talk on the phone much, don’t see each other during the week, don’t act affectionate toward each other while the four of them are together. They act more like brother and sister, which is even mentioned once. Other niggle: the dialogue is a little stilted, and it is most noticeable when it comes to the teenagers.
Overall, I liked the story. B-.
Solid Soul is the story of Kylie Hagan & Chance Steele. Kylie and her daughter, Tiffany, have recently relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, after Kylie’s job was downsized. She moved to Charlotte to be close to her best friend – her “real” family, because her blood family more or less abandoned her when she became pregnant as a teenager. Kylie has spent the last 15 years struggling as a single parent, and is now financially stable and utterly focused on her daughter. Much to her daughter’s frustration, because she (Tiffany) is tired of being warned about boys and sex. She decides that her mother needs to get a life, and with the help of her friend Marcus Steele, she’s going to fix that. The fix? Marcus’s father, Chance, a widower running the family business, Steele Corporation. The plan? Pretend to be madly in love, ready to do crazy things to be together. Thus, the parents have to communicate and come up with ways to calm them down and keep them from doing something drastic that might ruin their lives.
As much as Chance and Kylie are worried about their children, they are immediately attracted to each other in a combustible kind of way. Jackson did a fantastic job of building up the tension between the two of them. (I especially liked the late night phone conversations.) They have to balance setting a good example for their children with their attraction.
What did I like about the book? Well, I really liked that Chance and Kylie act like parents. Their children aren’t just set pieces, making obligatory appearances for the sake of giving them the title “parent”. Kylie and Tiffany have a great relationship, and love each other, despite having very clear-eyed views of each other’s faults and weaknesses. Same with Chance and Marcus. As characters, Chance and Kylie are both well drawn, although I found the matching family histories – both children the result of teenaged pregnancies, although obviously different outcomes -- a little coincidental, although I guess that happens. One qualm – Kylie has only ever had sex with the teenaged boyfriend who got her pregnant. Apparently, she never felt the urge. I know single parenthood is hard on the love life, but it really bothers me when authors make parents asexual beings. Huh, hello? That’s how they got to be parents in the first place.
What didn’t I like? Well, despite being very involved parents, Kylie & Chance never pay much attention to the fact that Marcus and Tiffany spend very little time together outside of school, despite being madly in love and ready to run away together. They don’t talk on the phone much, don’t see each other during the week, don’t act affectionate toward each other while the four of them are together. They act more like brother and sister, which is even mentioned once. Other niggle: the dialogue is a little stilted, and it is most noticeable when it comes to the teenagers.
Overall, I liked the story. B-.
