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JAK, _The Adventurer_
Sep. 20th, 2018 03:18 pmThis is an old one, and there are some issues with the kindle ebook. A lot of dialogue has a ? at the end of sentences where it isn’t clear that that was really intended? (<— cheap humor here). I’m a little unclear on the original publication date. It seems to have been a Harlequin, and may or may not have been published in 1990. I think it was part of a trilogy right from the beginning, but I’m not sure of even that much.
In any event, it has been reprinted many, many, many times over the last few decades. There is a loose connection between this, _The Pirate_ and _The Cowboy_. There are paper omnibus editions; _The Pirate_ came out in ebook form not too long ago so it is plausible to assume _The Cowboy_ will follow in due course. The loose connection is three women friends, possibly all romance writers. Two conspire to send the third off to the Amethyst Islands in _The Pirate_. By this entry, she and the titular Pirate are married and back in Seattle for an annual visit.
Sarah has been corresponding with the titular Adventurer for a few months, and decides to drive over to the coast to drop in on him. She has strong intuition, and as with many JAK books, this intuition does indeed seem to be remarkably accurate (it’s like a super low key superpower, basically, and like all superpowers, the person in possession gets a little lazy / sloppy because they can rely on that superpower to succeed where other people would actually have to work at it). She also seems to be a bit of a chaos magnet, a good cook, successful author and a slob.
Gideon is NOT a slob. He quite conspicuously dots all the t’s and crosses all the i’s that Sarah blows right past. The conflict is entertaining.
Massive, relentless boundary violations on the part of both parties. So, you know, if that is a problem for you, just turn right round and find something else to do with your time. She drops in on him completely unannounced and honestly, that’s probably the _least_ boundary violating thing she does to him. He says quite hurtful things. Sarah thinks of their relationship as being sort of Beauty and the Beast, and the treasure she is consulting with him to help her find are called the Fleetwood Flowers, and thus the Flower of Beauty and the Beast.
SPOILERS!
The book has a super short cast: Gideon and Sarah, obviously, the framing friends and a drive by cameo from the new husband and his son from a previous marriage. Gideon’s partner from a previous life. Employees at a restaurant near where Gideon lives. And two cats, one named Machu and the other Ellora. Repeatedly, Machu and Ellora are used by both Gideon and Sarah as metaphors for Gideon and Sarah respectively, and the relationship between the cats is used as a metaphor for their relationship.
Basically, 5 major characters, two of whom are cats. That is a _short_ cast.
Fun read. It has a really great sense of humor, some of which becomes evident only in the wrap-up at the end. I’m happy it is in ebook form. There’s a lot to think about here, in terms of what degree of possessiveness is okay, and what to do when it pops up in a relationship. The current strategy (run away!) is, of course, utterly valid, but Sarah has some alternative approaches which are interesting to contemplate, particularly from a therapeutic perspective (which is clearly her intention). People who call Sarah TSTL are clearly reading a different book than the one I read. (Either that, or they are just not prepared to entered the fictional universe and truly believe that her intuition works the way it is described AND depicted as working. Fair. Annoying, but fair.)
#37
In any event, it has been reprinted many, many, many times over the last few decades. There is a loose connection between this, _The Pirate_ and _The Cowboy_. There are paper omnibus editions; _The Pirate_ came out in ebook form not too long ago so it is plausible to assume _The Cowboy_ will follow in due course. The loose connection is three women friends, possibly all romance writers. Two conspire to send the third off to the Amethyst Islands in _The Pirate_. By this entry, she and the titular Pirate are married and back in Seattle for an annual visit.
Sarah has been corresponding with the titular Adventurer for a few months, and decides to drive over to the coast to drop in on him. She has strong intuition, and as with many JAK books, this intuition does indeed seem to be remarkably accurate (it’s like a super low key superpower, basically, and like all superpowers, the person in possession gets a little lazy / sloppy because they can rely on that superpower to succeed where other people would actually have to work at it). She also seems to be a bit of a chaos magnet, a good cook, successful author and a slob.
Gideon is NOT a slob. He quite conspicuously dots all the t’s and crosses all the i’s that Sarah blows right past. The conflict is entertaining.
Massive, relentless boundary violations on the part of both parties. So, you know, if that is a problem for you, just turn right round and find something else to do with your time. She drops in on him completely unannounced and honestly, that’s probably the _least_ boundary violating thing she does to him. He says quite hurtful things. Sarah thinks of their relationship as being sort of Beauty and the Beast, and the treasure she is consulting with him to help her find are called the Fleetwood Flowers, and thus the Flower of Beauty and the Beast.
SPOILERS!
The book has a super short cast: Gideon and Sarah, obviously, the framing friends and a drive by cameo from the new husband and his son from a previous marriage. Gideon’s partner from a previous life. Employees at a restaurant near where Gideon lives. And two cats, one named Machu and the other Ellora. Repeatedly, Machu and Ellora are used by both Gideon and Sarah as metaphors for Gideon and Sarah respectively, and the relationship between the cats is used as a metaphor for their relationship.
Basically, 5 major characters, two of whom are cats. That is a _short_ cast.
Fun read. It has a really great sense of humor, some of which becomes evident only in the wrap-up at the end. I’m happy it is in ebook form. There’s a lot to think about here, in terms of what degree of possessiveness is okay, and what to do when it pops up in a relationship. The current strategy (run away!) is, of course, utterly valid, but Sarah has some alternative approaches which are interesting to contemplate, particularly from a therapeutic perspective (which is clearly her intention). People who call Sarah TSTL are clearly reading a different book than the one I read. (Either that, or they are just not prepared to entered the fictional universe and truly believe that her intuition works the way it is described AND depicted as working. Fair. Annoying, but fair.)
#37