Jennie's B(ook)log

Title: Tied to the Tracks
Author: Rosina Lippi
Published: 2006, Putnam
Category: General Fiction
Rating: 8/10

This book isn't on sale until June, but I was able to snag an extra ARC at work. Rosina Lippi also writes a historical fiction series, Into the Wilderness, under the name Sara Donati. I love those books, so I decided to give her Lippi books a try. Her first book, Homestead, which I haven't read yet, but plan to, won quite a few literary awards. Into the Wilderness was such a different sort of book that her publisher asked her to switch to a pen name, which is interesting.

Tied to the Tracks tells the story of Angie Mangiamele, who runs a tiny film company in Hoboken, as she travels south to Ogilvie, SC, to produce a documentary about a media-shy literary icon, Miss Zula Bragg. Also living in Ogilvie just happens to be John Grant, a man who Angie had a short-lived but very passionate affair with five years earlier. Angie soon realizes that the fire's still there for both of them. But, of course, John is engaged to shortly be married to the town's darling. And all the town is in an uproar because they think the Yankee seductress is trying to steal John away from her.

I really enjoyed this book. For one thing, I want to move to Ogilvie (even though it's not a real place). Reading this novel in February in New York, a charming little town in the south in July sounded like heaven. And it so charming and real, filled with really funny characters. I also liked the fact that it is such a mature love story. Not that they're old, Angie's only 28 and John's 35, I think. But they had their summer of passion long ago, and then when meeting again realize that yes, this is not convenient and it's going to change their whole life plans and that's very scary, but it doesn't matter because this is the person who will make them happiest--if they can just get it right this time. I like the epigraph of the book-- "Happiness is the china shop; love is the bull."