Save Your Heart For Me
Grade : F

You've heard the expression, "Oh, it was nothing!" Well, now it comes in book form.

I do not get it. This book is the most nothing I have ever read. There is nothing to it. No story. No plot. No character development. Nothing. It's a mere 50,000 words (half the size of a series romance), and they want $18.95 for it. The audacity!

Carson Myszkowski (this is the heroine by the way) and Alex Langston were teenage friends. Alex moved away. Carson stayed in the thriving metropolis of Seven Springs, Tennessee to become a school teacher.

One day, Alex returns during the re-enactment of a Civil War incident in which a local Southern woman secretly loved a Union officer. It's called The Butcher's Roost affair, or some such - it made no sense and started the book off on the wrong foot (there was no right foot, but that's another matter). Okay, so why has affluent software developer Alex returned to his roots? Ostensibly to fix up his late grandmother's house so he can get married and live there, but really because he loved and still loves Carson. Carson is completely unaware of Alex's love for her. This is all in chapter one.

During the remainder of the book, Carson wonders: I wonder if Alex loves me? Alex spends the entire book thinking: I love Carson. I wonder if she loves me? They ask their friends: Do you think Alex loves me? I wonder if Carson loves me; what do you think? It's junior high school all over again. Not to be a spoiler, but the ending comes when Alex says: I love you, Carson and Carson says: You do? Gosh! The end.

A killer plot if ever I've read one.

If all this nothingness weren't enough, there is a naming gimmick that drove me crazy. Carson's father was a military man, so she was named after the fort at which she was born. You guessed it: Carson isn't an only child. Her brothers are named Riley, Bragg, Woods, Campbell, Lee, and Jackson. Oh puhleeze.

Author Joye Ames is actually husband-and-wife writing team Joyce and James Lavene - they met at a peace rally in 1971. This is their fourth novel, but I will not be looking for their other collaborations. More of nothing, I can do without.

Reviewed by Marianne Stillings
Grade : F

Sensuality: Kisses

Review Date : September 4, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

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Marianne Stillings

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