We absolutely love books with older MCs. Creating a love
story for people in their 50s/close to 60 is somehow so optimistic and heart-warming.
Love doesn’t have to be the bastion of only the youth (teens) or young (people
up to mid-30s), age groups that most romance writers stick to.
Marianne Windmere owns and runs a bakery that has
been their family business for almost 150 years. She also owns the building
which houses her business. There are two storefronts (suites) in the building
and at some point in his life, her father has sold one to his best friend.
Though never mentioned overtly, this loss of one suite is kind of a sore point
with Marianne and she’s never bothered to visit with any of the frequently
changing businesses housed in the second suite, never bothering with them one
way or another. However, the new business there, a restaurant specializing in
Egyptian food, is bothering her because Marianne customers keep complaining
about the lack of parking. One evening a wicked snowstorm traps the two
business owners in the building without electricity and thus Marianne meets
Rana Wahbi, a beguiling Egyptian lady. They spend a lovely evening together but
come morning and a fight about the parking ends their brief idyll. Marianna
investigates the parking issue and finds that it is being used by a third party
altogether and both the businesses are receiving complaints. Marianne and Rana
put up a no commuter parking sign and the city frowns at them asking them to
pull it down. So Marianne begins investigating into whom the parking lot really
belongs to. This little thread unravels with unexpected outcomes.
With all the scheming around the property and a slimy
politician, this could’ve been a breathless book but what we have is a cast of
extremely likeable characters living their lives, supporting each other and a
lovely new relationship developing at an unhurried and engaging pace. Most
of the characters are in the rainbow fold (queer, gay, bi, pan, trans, ace) and
entirely accepting. It may be hard to believe that world but it is a lovely
dream which is laid out in an entirely possible fashion. Marianne is 58 and on
the asexual spectrum. When she was younger, this was not a known concept and
she wonders whether knowing it would’ve made her marriage a different
experience. This is so, so real. In fact, all the ‘what ifs’ raised as just
mental questions are all very real. The relationship between Marianne and Rana
is soft, gentle and pretty (so pretty) with enough there to make the chemistry tangible.
This was a lovely book which we thoroughly enjoyed.
⭐⭐⭐☆
