
Genre:
Literary / General Fiction
Themes:
Age Gap
Angsty
Character with Disability
Election / Campaign Trail
Family Relationships
Growing Older
Grumpy / Sunshine
Historical
Ice Queen
Mature Lead 40+
Romance After 50
Slow Burn
Taboo / Forbidden Relationship
Heat Level:
Sweet (kissing, holding hands, etc., but no other on-the-page physical intimacy)
Archetypes:
Artist / Graphic Designer / Illustrator
Teacher / Professor
Geographic Location:
United States: Mid-Atlantic
Setting:
Academic / School / University
Small Town / Rural
Sexual / Gender Identity:
Lesbian
Androgynous
Tomboy
Invisible, as Music
Rainbow Award
By Caren J. Werlinger
With Meryn’s youthful optimism pitted against Henrietta’s jaded acceptance of the world as it is, life will never be the same for either of them.
Gold Medal – 2021 Readers’ Favorite
Henrietta Cochran has spent nearly forty years dealing with the effects of the polio she contracted in 1945. Her braces and crutches restrict her, define her, but they also give her independence. Almost. She hates that she has become increasingly reliant on a series of live-in companions to help her. For some reason, the companions never seem to want to stay very long. So Henrietta retreats further and further into her art, where her physical limitations don’t matter.
Into her life sails Meryn Fleming: out, outspoken, and fiercely political. She’s young, enthusiastically diving into her first job as a history professor at the local college. When she falls, almost literally, into Henrietta’s path, she seems like a godsend.
Little does Henrietta know that this young woman is about to upend her carefully structured existence. Ryn challenges everything, barging right through the walls Henrietta has built to keep others at a distance.
To Ryn, Henrietta is an enigma: prickly and easily insulted at the slightest suggestion that she can’t do things for herself; a brilliant artist capable of producing the most beautiful paintings; and sometimes, when Henrietta doesn’t realize she’s letting her guard down, a tender and sensitive woman.
With Meryn’s youthful optimism pitted against Henrietta’s jaded acceptance of the world as it is, life will never be the same for either of them.