The cynic in me did not want to love this book. For a start, I’m not naturally attracted to novels featuring glitter-spewing dragons and talking hedgehogs (kill me now).
Secondly, as a woman in her late forties, I wasn’t thrilled that the protagonists, Twyla and Frank, are also both middle-aged and at first seem to be well past their sell-by dates in terms of super spice potential.
Except I did. Love it, that is. Once I stopped eye-rolling at some of the cutesier elements, I found myself immersed in Megan Bannen’s weird and wonderful world of Tanria, and even more surprisingly, deeply intrigued by the undeniably sexy connection between Twyla, a widow, and her divorced neighbour, and best friend, Frank.
Is 53-year-old Twyla lithe-limbed and tousle-haired like we expect our storybook heroines, even those “of a certain age”, to be? Hell no. She’s a doughy-thighed, frizzy-haired, post-menopausal woman who got married far too young and now, one dead husband, three grown-up children and a handful of grandchildren later, has given up on feeling anything other than invisible.
Does Frank – also 53 – have the cut-from-glass abs and flawless, chiseled jawline we want to see on even the oldest studs in our romantic fantasies? Definitely not. He’s gruff, grey, and grizzled, and a little soft around the middle. He’s got scars on his heart and is haunted by his past losses.
But oh my god, the way he loves Twyla – who, of course, is too wrapped up in her own insecurities to even realise that she’s the woman of his dreams and deepest desires – made me swoon because it’s an epic slow burn that only someone “of a certain age” could ever understand.
By the time Twyla cottons on that Frank has the major hots for her, and realises the feeling is more than mutual, the sexual tension between the two of them is so searing, it would steam over any teen romantasy in BookTok’s spice rating department.
But more than being a fun frolic, I loved that this novel champions love that is founded on friendship. It isn’t young, flashy, or even easy. But it gives zero effs about how you look naked or the number of lines wrinkled into your skin. This love is realer than real, and builds up over many long decades into an everlasting force to be reckoned with. Now who wouln’t want to be loved like that?
Buy it in Paperback on Takealot
Order the Kindle version on Amazon
