Judith‘s review of Commitment by Ann Jacobs.
“No promises, no pain,” is Gaelen Reston’s mantra. But her long-time lover, Brent d’Angelo, wants a woman to cherish for a lifetime. He just has to persuade Gaelen that a real-life commitment doesn’t mean the end of their fiery fantasies.
This is erotic romance fiction through and through and there are few characters other than Gaelen and Brent. Brent’s family put in a very minor appearance as does one of his brothers and a co-worker of Brent’s, but ultimately this is a gentle, quiet, sexy, erotic, romantic story that has lots of underlying pain to it.
Gaelen has come from a home that made dysfunction a really dirty word. It was a home where there was never freedom from hurt and wounding, where siblings were used as weapons by their parents against one another, and where she came to believe that family and marriage were her worst enemies. That’s why, when she and Brent fell in “lust” five years earlier, they agreed that their affair would never intrude on their real life, that they would only attend obligatory social events connected to their professions during the week, that their get-togethers would never occur at one another’s domicile, and there would never be any talk of the future or of any promises that would bind them together. Fear–the kind that paralyzes, overwhelms unexpectedly, and causes one’s perception of reality to become seriously skewed is at the heart of this story. Gaelen is obviously a warm, loving, and passionate woman who knows down deep that Brent is the love of her life. Allowing him into the deepest recesses of her heart and soul is a risk she just can’t seem to take.
Brent is one of those wonderful, balanced and caring men who is comfortable in his skin, who loves with his whole heart and soul, and who agrees to Gaelen’s terms of their relationship because he knew that was what she needed. Now he is pushing her, getting her to agree to spending his “vacation” for two weeks at his house, pushing her to think about what their life would be like to wake up each day together, to make a baby together, to know that they were there for one another at a deeper level. Brent is a plastic surgeon who, in addition to making people cosmetically beautiful, takes cases that other surgeons refuse–repairing facial birth defects for children of poor families, spending extra time with victims of cancer, etc. He is just one really special man. Yet he continues to realize that he needs Gaelen in his life and if her fear continues to rob them of a fuller life together, he will take what she is willing to give.
This short story is a wonderful, amazingly erotic and romantic story. Ms Jacobs has proven to be an expert storyteller, and she moves these characters through this time in their personal history gently but relentlessly. It is also one of those stories that has a far deeper meaning and makes a serious point about the times in many people’s lives when playing at relationship seems to be the route to take. But ultimately couples must own up to the fact that commitment means surrendering one’s fears as well as one’s gifts and talents and emotions. Love is wonderful, but genuine love is demanding–it is never satisfied with holding pat when insecurity and the unwillingness to risk become more important that allowing the relationship to grow. It’s sort of like holding one’s breath: it seems to do OK for a while, for some longer than others, but eventually oxygen deprivation takes over. Just as Gaelen came to see, no one can stay in one “place” or stance endlessly.
I enjoyed this short story and felt it had the marks of good fiction. The characters were realistic, the story was taken out of contemporary life, and the underlying realities are more common than most of us realize. All in all, a very good read. I would love to see Ms Jacobs write a really meaty, full-length novel. She tells such good stories but after awhile, novellas and short stories are frustrating. For that reason I have marked down this rating–wonderful content; it just was so very short.
I give it a rating of 3.75 out of 5.
You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.
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