Good evening, my Fellow Book Dragons, tonight’s Gem is a semi-precious stone of amber. It glows with a warm reddish amber in the firelight. Watch out, because though it may seem tame, it can come back to be the very thing one swore off just a while before. This is Gem Maker T.M. Shivener’s debut novel “Ginger Devil”.
This is the story of a nurse named Calliope Keating whom friends call “Callie”. She is fed up with men and swears off them. She has had it with one night stands, waking up to men whose names she can’t remember and whose company she does not want a second dose of. Well, that is, until she meets the “Ginger Devil”, a handsome redhead who seems too good to be true. Callie is an Appalachian girl and in that spirit, anything that seems too good to be true probably is.
I liked this book. It is a Romance, which is not always my cuppa, but it does have it’s merits. Callie is a realistic character. She has a real job and doesn’t make a fortune so she rooms with her best friend and her little girl. The little girl is not a brat, but not an angel either. Her best friend is not rich and doesn’t have the answer for everything. Their apartment is middle class, just what two women heading for 30 would be able to afford.
Callie also has some flaws, she is very judgemental in many ways and very accepting in others. She judges her patients rather harshly for living lifestyles that land them in the Intensive Care Unit she works on, but then admits she gets blackout drunk and goes home with men whose names she can’t remember when she wakes up. This behavior could get her more than a bed in her unit, it could get her dead. It made her a bit hard to like in the beginning, but she’s young and she grew on me.
She’s accepting of her friends, even though her room mate is a mommy of a toddler, yet engages in picking up men as well, though she doesn’t take them home. Callie is full of such complexities. She goes to a local hole in the wall bar for karaoke night (admitting it’s a hole in the wall) and then talks about the class of people there. It’s rather amusing to watch her personality in action.
Our Hero, Jensen Stone, is not a local. He has come to her small town on a contract for the local power plant. He’s not a movie star, he’s not a playboy. What he is is a tall, handsome Ginger. He’s a truly nice guy who makes mistakes. I rooted for this couple. It’s been awhile since I read a Romance like that.
For a first time out it does have a few small issues. A minor re-editing would be helpful. Callie is a nurse in a local, small town hospital, but Mrs. Shivener used a lot of medical lingo and then footnoted the meanings of the words. I didn’t find that necessary as most of us can Google what we don’t know or are familiar with most of the terminology, it slowed the pace of the book a bit.
If you are looking for a Romance that has characters with real jobs, real problems and real feelings, this is it. It is available on Amazon. If you are searching for a new author with something to offer, look up Ms. Shivener, I understand she has a new book out as well. Good job overall T.M.!
Until tomorrow, I remain, your humble Book Dragon,
Drakon T. Longwitten
I received a review copy from the author and my opinions are my own.