Lori Duff Writes

A Solitary Romance: Book 1 in the Only Love Series

Disclaimer: The good folks at Books and the Bear gave me a copy of A Solitary Romance in exchange for an honest review.

A Solitary Romance by Violet Sparks tells the story of Katrina Crimshaw, or “Kate,” a CPA and auditor who has a blog under a pseudonym regarding vintage jewelry. For reasons never quite explained, she doesn’t want anyone at her day job to know she has this passionate interest.

Kate is presented as an intelligent, educated woman. Her job requires understanding of high finance and she is reportedly good at what she does. She does detailed research professionally, and detailed research into the jewelry she admires.

And yet, despite all this, she turns into a gooey mess when a former co-worker, now her boss, Robert LaSalle, shows up on the scene. She is incapable of speech. She actually swoons. She has to go outside and catch her breath. She gets a fever, for crying out loud. It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that a boss hitting on an underling is the definition of sexual harassment. Only that “horrible” HR woman who spoils the plans.

Katrina does all the research, working her connections, to make sure that a big deal doesn’t fall through at work. With all the pieces in place due to her hard work, she leaves the office so the “men in the office” can handle the details. (Yes, that’s a quote.) And, presumably, take all the credit for her work. Honestly, that made me a little nauseated.

There are some moments where the book shines. Sparks’ descriptions of the jewelry and vintage dresses paint a very vivid picture. It’s a shame that her people don’t have the depth and reality that the jewelry and clothing do.

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Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.