Just a Little Romance by Mary Jane Russell

Publisher:                   Intaglio Publications

          "If one more person under the age of twenty - making her own forty-three years

          all the more obvious - jostled her messenger bag without any form of apology,

          that person was likely to be decked.  She would swear she was menopausal and

          not responsible for her actions.  Who amongst a store full of people half her age

          would argue with that?" (pg. 1)

Does this woman sound familiar?  Maybe you've been this woman.

Samantha Moyer is a hero for the common woman.  She's a little too tall, carries a few extra pounds, has red hair thanks to L'Oreal and finds herself in middle age with no love to call her own.  She likes her job, stands by her friends, fights for the weak and can't understand why finding a woman to share her life is so difficult.  It's certainly not for lack of trying.  Sam and her best friend Paul frequently visit Internet sites hoping to make a match.  The result is a growing string of one time dates ranging from the bizarre to the ridiculous.  Her most consistent relationship is with a nurse in the emergency room she keeps ending up in and that woman has a decidedly negative impression of her.  As Sam moves through each day trying to maintain a successful business, she's drawn into the lives of Paul, her neighbor Ava and another neighbor Haley who has an abusive partner.  Her life is full, but could use just a little romance.

Just A Little Romance is a very enjoyable book.  It's not a typical romance, but a nice story about a routine life with some occasional excitement thrown into it.  Most books feature women who are strikingly beautiful, engaged in highly successful occupations and living totally satisfying lives.  Sam Moyer is just an ordinary woman making it through each day.  She's irritated by young people who lack proper manners and appalled by KD who frequently beats Haley.  She acts before she thinks because she wants to do what is right and sometimes she pays for it, as her bruises and broken bones prove.  Sam enjoys her job and her friends, but misses that special someone to come home to.  It's nice to read a story about a woman that most other women can relate to very easily, especially when the story is told with a lot of humor and some nervous suspense.

Mary Jane Russell has written a book that will draw the reader in.  The hook is that the characters will feel so familiar that it's like visiting with friends.  That will result in a few hours of very comfortable reading.