Review: This Time Is Different

This Time Is Different by Mae Wood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well I can't say I'm ecstatic about this the way some other people are but I did like it. It featured nice people acting like grown-ups, people with adult children, good jobs and good hearts.

Thomas Popov is a widower with three adult children, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Methodist hospital in Memphis and now that his children have all left home he's starting back on a career track that will probably see him moving from city to city. In his wisdom he thinks getting together a hospital softball team would generate some team spirit in the management team. Instead one of his colleagues swipes his face with a bat whilst warming up and socks him in the jaw.

Amy Forsythe is an orthodontist in partnership with her best friend Diana who is a dentist. Although not strictly her role, she agrees to see Thomas while her business partner attends her daughter's dress rehearsal, after all that's what the two of them agreed - kids come first. Amy is divorced with a son about to go to college.

Under the influence of the pain-killers Amy gives him Thomas declares his undying love for "Doctor Dentist Angel", something his skanky colleague films and then shows to anyone and everyone he can, but although his tongue may have been loosened by the pain-killers Thomas does feel a connection to Amy and they embark on a series of dates, but Thomas is still in love with his wife and Amy has no desire to ever get married again. Can there be a future for them?

I think that all the hype about this book is because Thomas is 53 years old, I mean that's positively decrepit in the Romanceland, and also there's very little angst. Sure there are ex-husbands and moody teenagers who don't want their Mum dating again and moody twenty-somethings who don't want their Dad getting taken in by a gold-digger or trying to replace their Mum. But all of these things are dealt with appropriately and in a mature fashion. It's like a breath of fresh air. Thomas also has a line of cheesy Dad jokes and a wicked streak of innuendo - I just loved the banter between Amy and Thomas about the wine she buys from the supermarket - so true to life.

So, if all the current romances with their 20-something characters who are either gazillionaires or terribly tortured (or both) are starting to get on your very last nerve this could be the one for you.

Off to see what other goodness Mae Wood has written ...

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