Tomorrow's Path

February 22, 2016
The novelty in this globe-trotting contemporary romance lies in its attempt to slot modern concernsâdiversity, domestic abuse, feminismâinto a moral framework that was ossified before most of the book's potential readers were born. Jessica Lord is a 27-year-old virgin who works with computers and writes fantasy novels on her own time. Her parents berate her for being unmarried and living away from home. Upon winning a writing contest, she encounters Jivan Childering, a successful author and the illegitimate half-Indian son of a wealthy socialite. Virginity and illegitimacy are the protagonists' major characteristics; aside from basic demographics, little more background is given. Jessica appeals to Jivan because of her wide-eyed excitement about success. Despite Jivan's arrogance, Jessica can't resist his smoldering looks., and anyway, his attitude is the fault of that bed-hopping woman he divorced, who is now stalking him by subscribing him to porn magazines. There are tours of Australia's charms and many of the romance genre's major themes, but these are rendered as flat as the outdated prurience.

February 15, 2016
Beware of meeting your idol! Fledgling English author Jessica Lord is excited to encounter best-selling writer Jivan Childering, but he turns out to be surly, arrogant, and aloof. Nothing like she imagined. Months pass, then their paths cross again, half a world away in Australia. Here this extremely private, emotionally wounded man gradually starts showing a different, softer side of himself, as Jessica struggles in her new job with an exasperating boss. Jacobs (A Time for Hope, 2015) quickens the pace as plain, frugal Jessica and wealthy celebrity-author Jivan develop a working relationship, and Jessica silently falls for this man scarred from his ugly divorce. She eventually learns that his grasping, mentally unbalanced ex-wife is sullying his name and, paradoxically, hiring detectives to search for him in the hope of reconciliation. Tension increases in this two-on-the-run tale, in which wildly different individuals grow closer. What might have been a predictable plot is deepened by riveting details which hold the reader's interest with their verisimilitude, and Jacobs' well-drawn characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)