Judith’s review of A Slower, Lower Life by Lila Munro

When two worlds collide, Being the oldest of eight has never been easy for Kurt Delaney, but the pressure he’s put on himself far exceeds anything anyone else inflicts on him. Known as the family stick in the mud, Kurt’s pushing forty and with the heirship to the family farm hanging in the balance, he finds his hopes of a married life with children swirling down the drain. Honor and family are everything to Kurt and a mate that doesn’t hold those same things as dear as he does is completely unacceptable. 

Deidre Maloney is city born and bred. In the absence of her botanist parents, she was raised by a nanny and knows nothing of the love of a family or how being married works. Commitment isn’t a word in Deidre’s vocabulary. Only concerned with finding a new job and having a fling, she embarks on a trip from Chicago to Seaford, Delaware to see her best friend Cait marry her high school sweetheart. Being attracted to a Delaney brother wasn’t on Deidre’s carefully planned itinerary. the aftermath is all that matters…

 With so many differences between he and Deidre, Kurt can’t believe he’s let himself fall for such a woman. She’s looking for a prime rib guy and Kurt knows he’s just skirt steak. When they’re in close proximity, however, something undeniably amazing happens. How does he convince her that family isn’t something to fear and love doesn’t hurt? How does Kurt show Deidre that a slower, lower life is what she’s been looking for all along?

I had the privilege of reading and reviewing Ms Munro’s earlier book, A Slower, Lower Love,  in which the two main characters in this book were introduced.  While reading that story, it was hard to realize that Kurt Delaney was the brother that was being left out in the cold, even though he had  “stepped up to the plate” and tried to soothe the hurt of his soon-to-be sister-in-law when his younger brother had just simply disappeared. Now he has come to a place in his life that he has, for all intent and purpose, given up hope of finding his own “happily ever after” and has pretty much decided to accept his bachelor status.  Enter Diedre, a woman he met briefly some months ago and who has now come to Delaware to be Cait’s maid of honor.  As best man, Kurt is “stuck” squiring her to all the family events and such before the wedding, and in fact, finds out that the only place for her to stay is in his guest room.  ( We find out later in the book that this is an intentional sort of “matchmaking” ploy on the part of his mother and some of his other female relatives.)  Not really able to change the arrangements, Kurt decides that he can handle his close proximity to Dierdre and keep his heart and emotions intact.

Now Deirdre is a city girl–raised by well-to-do world-class scientists, and because of her own career, used to living with the better things in life.  That fact alone is enough to convince Kurt that she could never have anything long-term to interest him.  In fact, this matches Deirdre’s own opinion about any kind of connection with Kurt–a fling might be nice, but anything more just wouldn’t fit into her life and career plans.  Yet she is lonely and so very unhappy in her Chicago job, her high-rise apartment is cold and impersonal, and she misses her friends.  Not having had any family togetherness–her parents left her with a nanny more often than not–her friends are just about the only people who have any access to her life, and living in Chicago essentially separates her from them.

This story is really about a clash in cultures.  The Delaney Clan is a boistrous, live-life-to-the-fullest kind of family that embraces strangers easily but finds betrayal hard to forgive.  Deirdre is well and truly one of them as Cait’s best friend, but any hope of retaining their good will would melt away like an ice cube on the equator if she were to hurt Kurt in any way.  There is deep kindness embedded in the character and personalities of each family member.  They recognize the attraction between Deirdre and Kurt before either of these lovers do.  They also recognize Deirdre’s deep hunger for a circle of loving people who are hers, who care about her, who have her best interests at heart, and who see her for who she is.  There is a wonderful sense of hope throughout this story.  A reader like me hopes like heck that Kurt can find someone who will answer his deep longings for a life partner, one who will understand what makes him tick and will accept his small town ways and his need to be “there” for his family.

It was very satisfying to work through Deirdre and Kurt’s developing relationship, to watch as they became more aware of one another on many levels, to watch Deirdre’s anxiety over the huge number of Kurt’s relatives gradually fade while seeing how she was able to help Kurt get past his almost obsessive need to keep the family business “running.”  As Deirdre became more important and actually demanded more of his attention, he had no alternative but to allow his younger siblings to take more of the family responsibilities.  And the funny thing is, that is exactly what his younger brothers wanted to do.

Ms Munro once again makes a compelling case for living in the slow lane of this quiet Eastern seaboard town in Delaware.  Held up beside and over against the frantic rush of city living, this way of living and relating gave Deirdre an opportunity to slow down, relax, and come face to face with what she honestly longed for and had never allowed herself to either feel or have.  Kurt’s quiet but persistent understanding gave her the foundation upon which to build a life that far less frantic while fulfilling her inner longings for family and belonging.  This novel honestly explores the difficulties many have when trying to “downsize” their lives or change the pace of their lives.  My own experience when moving from Northern California to a small town in Idaho in the early 70’s was an eye-opener and for the first year or so, was a very difficult transition.  Eventually, my entire family came to appreciate the “slower, lower life” that we were able to live.  It has always been a cherished memory.  It was a time and locality we left behind reluctantly.

This is another fine addition to Ms Munro’s writing accomplishments and while not overly erotic, is certainly romantic to the full.  It is one of those books that caused me to experience a deep sigh of satisfaction when I reached the final sentence.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

The Series:

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place

This book is available from Rebel Ink Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Judith‘s review of A Slower, Lower Love by Lila Munro

Cait O’Kelley loved Bryce Delaney with all her heart.  But loving him scared the hell out of her.  Cait didn’t want to settle for being married to a cop and having his children.  She wanted more.  Unfortunately, more came with a price.  After leaving her small town for a more glamorous life and working her way up the corporate ladder, a whirlwind affair with the boss’s son tears Cait’s world apart.  On the brink of losing everything she’s worked for, she has to make a decision, and going back seems impossible. 

After eight years of living without her, Bryce Delaney is charged with watching over Cait during her week long stay at her parents’ beach house in Bethany.  She’s come there to sort out her life and while she’s contemplating her future, Cait and Bryce discover the fireworks are still there.  But can they ever go back to where they once were?  As his secrets begin to surface, Bryce sees only one way to save her.  He disappears without a trace leaving Cait behind to pick up the pieces and deal with a whole host of new problems that she can neither explain away or hide.

With Bryce out of the way, his brother Kurt finds what he’s always dream of handed to him on a silver platter.  After watching Bryce and Cait toying with each other for fifteen years, Kurt eagerly steps up to the plate.  But is he strong enough to ground Cait and prevent her from making yet another mistake?  And which brother will win her heart and show her that a slower, lower love is enough? 

We have all been counseled to be careful:  the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence.  And how many people–possibly some of us–have longed for life in another place, away from the familiar and possibly away from the small and slow and unexciting life of Small Town, USA?  So it was with Cait O’Kelley, falling in love with her handsome fella, but recognizing that Bryce wanted forever long before she had experienced the “other side of the fence.”  She wanted the big town life of Boston, the excitement of succeeding in corporate America, of knowing that she had successfully provided “the good life” for herself and proven her worth as a person and especially, as a woman.  Yet the road to success is more often than not strewn with potholes that turn into emotional and professional sinkholes before our eyes.  So it was for Cait as she saw everything she had worked for oozing away like a river of mud.  She had the boss’s son in the palm of her hand–the diamond engagement ring, plans for the wedding of the decade, the position at one of Boston’s finest marketing firms–but she turned her back on the marriage (she really didn’t love him) and as a result, lost the job, too.

Now, with no job, no prospects, no real plan for moving forward, Cait retreats to her parent’s beach house in her home town on the Atlantic.  The quiet of the town, the familiar and relentless swoosh of the waves on the shore, bring her back to a place where she begins to value the simpler aspects of her childhood.  Add in the fact that the old flame, Bryce Delaney in the flesh, is now taking up space in the beach house next door.  It was not long before the old feelings come to the surface and the love affair is “on again.” 

This is a multi-layered, complicated novel in every sense of the word.  It is messy just like life is messy, fraught with raw emotion and alive with feelings and the nerves of trying to make sense out of situations that defy explanation.  Eight years earlier Cait had taken off.  She just simply disappeared and it wasn’t until several days later that she let her family know where she was and that she wasn’t coming back.  In a most hurtful and decisive way she let Bryce know that they were done.  Now, after re-igniting the old flames and proclaiming their true feelings that had never died, Bryce disappears, only there is no sign of him for nearly three months.  His apartment is empty, his car is gone, his police precinct knows nothing as to his whereabouts, and Cait is left with the same kind of emotional overload she shoved on Bryce eight years earlier.  This story is not pretty in many ways.  Readers who want frothy and frolicing love tales would do well to stay out of these pages because there is pain and disappointment, hurt and disillusionment aplenty.  Add in the fact that Bryce’s brother wants Cait for himself, and the complications become even more complicated.

I own up to really liking these kinds of stories because they are real and their very messiness makes them real.  As a helping professional I encounter messy lives constantly and this smacks of that kind of authentic living which makes loving so painful sometimes even as the flip side can be so beautiful and fulfilling.  Ms Munro has written some wonderful stories in the past but I think this is one that has grabbed me more completely than others she has penned.  Cait is strong and courageous to own up to the good that has come out of her years in Boston–her skills as a marketing executive are quite extensive–but she also is willing to face the chaos she left in her wake eight years earlier, not only in her personal relationship with Bryce but in her own family.  She knows she has to find a way back to her mom and dad as well.  Bryce is a man that has grown and matured and the very fact that he has waited for Cait, never knowing whether she will ever return, speaks of the depth of his true affection and his willingness to make a commitment to her that is lasting and enduring.  That he is called upon to put that commitment to the supreme test is a tough and mind boggling decision.  Just one more aspect to this story that is not easy but which adds to the compelling nature of the tale.

This is one of those novels that needs to be read and re-read.  There is so much here and such depth that it will, in my opinion, take more than one read through to plumb those depths and identify all that is going on with the characters.  So I recommend that lovers of romance novels with tension, authentic emotion, and essential humanity not miss this story.  It is a full length novel and well worth the time and effort to explore.

I give it a rating of 5 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Rebel Ink Press. You can buy it here in e-format.