In Love with a Younger Man-Cheryl Robinson

In Love with a Younger Man
Cheryl Robinson
NAL, Jan 2009, $14.00
ISBN 9780451225825

At college, her dorm residents dub Olena Day the “bitch” due to her prickly demeanor; she rationalizes her behavior as acceptable because her first boyfriend committed suicide when they were fifteen. Her college roommate who happens to be her cousin Candice warns Olena her chances of finding a boyfriend is slim to none as African-Americans prefer lighter skinned docile females. Olena ignores Candice’s rant and becomes Andrew’s girlfriend. When she becomes pregnant he demands she abort their twin fetuses. He still dumps her and marries another girl he impregnated.

Twenty-five years later, Olena is even a greater bitch than her college days, as a successful businesswoman but with no friends and no outside of work relationships. Lonely she takes leave from her job planning to write a book, but soon meets finance executive Matthew Harper, who is almost two decades younger than her. They are attracted to one another and begin an ardent relationship though she has doubts beyond their age differences as she knows first-hand men leave.

Olena makes this deep tale work when she falls IN LOVE WITH A YOUNGER MAN; who sees below the acerbic exterior to the lonely vulnerable woman inside. As Olena begins to think of a future without her beloved, she begins to look back to what she did to cause her to have no friends by running off anyone who tried to get close to her including family. Fans will appreciate this deep character driven contemporary romance as few protagonists are as developed as Olena is. deep

Harriet Klausner