White Picket Fences by Tara Taylor Quinn

I always appreciate a heroine who is a little bit different. Although I'm far from an athlete myself, it's nice to read about a heroine who is unabashedly athletic - and a hero who admires her for it.

White Picket Fences by Tara Taylor Quinn
(2000, Contemporary Series) 6/21/08
Grade: 4

Miranda Parsons is content with her job, her family, her home. If only she didn’t have to sponsor a pet therapy group at her college - dogs are so messy! But veterinarian Zack Foster is a lot more appealing. Zack is still reeling after his wife left him for another woman, so all he wants is an affair with no strings - which is just what Miranda wants too, right?

This was a very easy book to read - I finished it in one evening. I was impressed by the way the author handled Zack’s situation. Although Zack initially blames himself for not satisfying his wife, everyone around him quickly points out that his wife’s sexual orientation wasn’t his fault (or hers) and everyone ends up friends. Miranda’s issues are given less attention - although she learns to accept her imperfections and open herself to love, at the beginning she seemed compulsive almost to the extent of OCD, and that really isn’t addressed. However, my main problem with the book was the ever-so-perfect town of Shelter Valley. Every few pages, a character gives a little lecture about how wonderful Shelter Valley is, how perfect the people are, how much better than the nasty city. I expected a comment that all the children were above average. It was way, way overdone and it became intrusive. There were also too many references to characters from previous books. These were fairly minor problems, but it made me a bit reluctant to pick up other books in this series.

What is it with romance novelists and small towns? I've met lots of romance novelists, and for the most part, they live where the rest of us do - some in small towns, but mostly in suburbs and cities and various other places. But the myth of the idyllic small town persists in romance. No place could be as perfect as the romance novel small town - everyone who lives there is virtuous, kind, and altogether above average. Maybe some readers like this, but I find it cloying, especially when the author keeps stuffing it down the reader's throat every few pages. It's a tribute to how good the rest of this book was that I graded it as highly as I did, because the endless hosannas to Shelter Valley made me want to gag after a while.