Reviewer: Janet Davies
Title: December Heat
Author: Joanie MacNeil
Publisher: Champagne Books
E-book ISBN: 1897261926
Release Date: December 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Present Day – Blue Mountains, Canberra and Sydney, Australia
Overall Rating: 3.5
Sexual Content Rating: Subtle
Language (Profanity) Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: None
Joanie's Website:
www.bookswelove.net/macneil.html
When two strangers meet at a party and share a stolen kiss, is it fate or something else?
When Jake Harrigan meets Nicolette Oliver, an instant attraction is sparked. However she is his best friend Mark’s fiancée and therefore off limits to him, however this does not stop Jake thinking about her.
A year or so later, war correspondent Jake is back in Australia. He is looking for peace and time to relax after a traumatic experience. He visits the bush home of his best friend Mark. He knows his friend will understand the nightmares that plague him. However on visiting Mark’s home, in the tranquil Blue Mountains, he discovers a tragedy. Mark is dead.
Nicolette, Marks’s widow, is stunned to see Jake after such a long time. She had no way of contacting him after Mark’s death. She is wounded but not surprised at the accusations Jake throws at her. She is feeling deeply guilty over many things. If Nicolette could have done things differently would she? Would Jake? Would Mark? A deep attraction still simmers between Nicolette and Jake. But both are haunted by their pasts. They want to move in their lives but to what and to who?
To me, I felt the characters in December Heat were circling each other, unsure of what they wanted and scared to take a chance on a possibility. There is an overall theme of loneliness and the feeling of what Jake and Nicolette could or should have done if they had of taken another path. But then as we all known life never works out that way. So this book has a realistic feel in the fact that people don’t always take the choices they should or could have and that fate plays a huge part in life. This book is about recovering and moving on.
However, there is also the theme of being true to yourself. What so you want as an individual? How do you balance career success and love? The romance is slow and sweet and believable. The descriptions of the Blue Mountains scenery made me feel like I was there hearing the cicadas and feeling the heat of an Australian Summer.
December Heat is a book I believe most readers will identify with. It’s about missed chances and making up for lost time. And who hasn’t wondered ‘what if?’
Janet
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