Meet me at the train museum after dark. Dress for 1957.
When Mandy joins an online dating service, she keeps her expectations low. All she wants is a distraction from the drudgery of single parenthood and full-time work. But the invitation she receives from a handsome man who won’t share his real name promises an adventure—and a chance to pretend she’s someone else for a few hours.
She doesn’t want romance to complicate her life, but Mandy’s monthly role-playing dates with her stranger on a train—each to a different time period—become the erotic escape she desperately needs. And a soul connection she never expected.
Yet when she tries to draw her lover out of the shadows, Mandy has a fight on her hands…to convince him there’s a place for their fantasy love in the light of day.
When our story begins Mandy has been seeing a man for a date once a month for about 9 months. She enjoys the dates she has at the train museum in town and she gets to dress for a different time period for each date. She can be whoever she chooses on those dates – except herself.
The man she’s dating is someone she met online and she liked his sense of humor and quirkiness (something her best friend just called “weird”). She has no idea who the man is, what his real name is or even what his real story is. The longer she dates him the more she wants to know.
After all these months Mandy decides that she definitely wants to know this man on a deeper level. She’s falling in love with him but how can that be when she doesn’t really know him? A chance encounter tells Mandy his real name and from there she finds out more about him but way of the internet. Mandy decides to go for it and ask the man out on a real date but she’s certainly not prepared for what follows.
I have to say that I’m becoming a true Knox fan. I’ve really liked what I’ve read and every time I pick up a different book by her I get sucked in – which is a good thing!
This story was so not what I expected when I purchased it – it ended up being so much more than that. While all of Knox’s books have angst in them this one felt a bit angsty-er. (I don’t want to say dark, because it wasn’t really.) At times my heart broke for the main characters and that meant I had completely engaged with them – which made me happy. I guess it was a paradox as I was happy I was so into them but my heart was sad because of what they were going through.
Anyway, this is one that I think just about everyone would enjoy. It’s romantic and sexy and I definitely recommend it.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
What a fascinating premise! (And a great idea for a date 🙂
It was really different and pretty angsty – but good!