|
Tamara Contreras is shocked to receive a drunken marriage proposal from Ruben, the man she’s been dating. Her mom loves him and wants her to get married. The problem is that she’s been planning to break up with him and he proposes in the middle of a party.
Her rejection sets up a string of events that result in an estrangement from her mother. She moves to LA from home for the first time ever, and gets a job in an art gallery. Along the way, she reconnects with Will Benavides. When they were in high school together, she had a huge crush on Will, and had no idea it was mutual. Both are interested in art, Will used to paint murals, but now is working as a fireman.
Watching how Will and Tamara maneuver around one another, especially when her boss assigns her to get Will to sign on with the gallery, is both interesting and amusing. Will is terrified that people will reject his art, or even worse, won’t understand it. Tamara has her own personal demons to handle. She wants to get into USC for a Master’s in Fine Arts, but is turned down. Will they be able to work out their differences or will ambition overrule love?
Tamara is a 26 year old woman who is sick of teaching school and wants to break out of the cocoon of her family. Her mother wants to her settle down and start having babies. To Tamara, that sounds like a prison sentence. She has so much more she wants to do with her life. When she quits her teaching job to move to LA, her mother cuts her off, refusing to speak to or even say goodbye to her. Though her father and brother are supportive, they are not able to intervene in the situation.
Will’s mother abandoned his brother and him when they were young. They were placed in foster care, and Will believed he had to protect his younger brother. His inability to do so has led him to fear further losses, and so he has not married. Now his landlady has taken him in her heart as her grandson, and she is pushing him to marry.
Mary Castillo has written an engrossing novel that is as much about family as it is about the romance between Will and Tamara. The desire for independence versus the desire to please one’s parents is a major theme. The book is very well written, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Reviewed by Nancy Riggins-Hume
for The Road to Romance
May 17, 2005
|
