Lovely. That's the word that comes to mind. Take Me for Longing is a lovely story about two people whose lives follow divergent lines, but manage to intersect once. That brief contact sets their lives along lines so discordant it seems they'll never find their way back to each other.
Nic is a nice guy, maybe too nice. Grounded in the world of Bluegrass music, he's thrown off kilter by things he can't, or won't, talk about. On his own now, he's struggling to put him mistakes behind him and find a new path in life – separate from all he's ever known.
June should be basking in the glow of success. Her bestselling novel, based on an encounter with a Bluegrass musician years ago, changed her life, but not necessarily in a good way. Still reeling from her divorce, its taken months for June to find her words again. When the man she's tried unsuccessfully to forget shows up on her stretch of California beach, all the feelings she tried to exorcise by writing about them sweep back in.
This is a charming, tender, and yes, lovely story about the power and endurance of love. There's a lot of denial going on, but in the end, these two find the courage to face what they've known since that brief encounter years ago – they belong together.
Take Me for Longing is a well-crafted story. I liked these characters, and even though I don't know a thing about Bluegrass music, I was drawn into Nic's world through his words and actions. Take it from someone with a tin ear - you don't have to be a Bluegrass fan, or even a music fan to enjoy this book.