Hug Dancing

September 30, 1991
Hearon's delightful 12th novel, after Owning Jolene , is a racy, realistic romance that follows Cile Tait, a parson's wife in Waco, Tex., on the road to happily-ever-after with her reclaimed high-school sweetheart. After they discover that they're still in love with each other while waltzing together at the Heart of Texas Fairgrounds, Cile and Drew Williams determine to wait three years, until her two daughters and his two sons are in high school, before she leaves her dour husband, Eben, and he his wealthy wife from Dallas, Mary Virginia. But after Cile tells Eben, who announces her imminent departure from his pulpit and who, she learns, is involved with a female congregant, Drew seems to hesitate. Cile finds out that the land values on his grandfather's farm, where they expected to live, are at issue, and that his mother and wife are planning to throw him a lavish 40th birthday party. Cile continues with her claims for independence, calling upon her father, from whom she's been estranged since her mother's death 20 years earlier. Hearon's tricky, credible resolution involves Cile's and Drew's children, engaging teenagers full of surprises; additional knowledge about her mother's death; and a reconciliation with Drew's mother. A lively and accomplished turn around the dance floor. Author tour.

October 15, 1991
The course of true love rarely runs smoothly, even in 1990s Waco, Texas. Cile Tait is preparing to leave her rigid Presbyterian minister-husband for her old long-lost high-school sweetheart and hug-dancing partner Drew. But before she can live happily ever after, Cile must deal with Lila Mae, Drew's elegant mother who is opposed to the affair; Mary Virginia, Drew's acquisitive Dallas wife who wants to sell Drew's farm for big bucks to a government supercollider project; Jae-Moon, the beautiful Korean parishoner who is supplanting Cile in her husband's affections; and four teenagers (Cile's and Drew's). Most of all, Cile must confront the legacy of her mother's death in a flash flood, an event that separated Cile and Drew years ago and threatens to divide them again. Hearon ( Owning Jolene, LJ 12/88) deftly portrays the conflict in modern Texas life between the old ways of country dancing and barbeques and the new Sunbelt world of semiconductors and Pacific Rim scientists. While there is no great depth here, Hearon's warmth, humor, and affection for her characters recommend this to popular fiction collections.-- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

Copyright 1991 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.