Déjà vu All Over Again

When I read Deja Vu, it was easy to see why it's an award winner. A fetching heroine, a hero with a past he's trying to outrun, and the fates that try to bring them back together after their time long ago as high school sweethearts. The writing crackles with a bounce that puts humor into every encounter. Death by car wash eliminates one character. While the story mounts, though, it turns to the essentials of our lives: love that lasts, and finding the kind that fits for our soul.

Deja Vu isn't glib or filled with formula, but it's a romance award winner. The author deserves the attention he's won with his Ben Franklin prize. This is the all so rare romance written by a man, but with a tender take on what women want for themselves in love. Highly recommended.

Good Times at Mt. Hamilton High

This novel is a fun mix of comedy and romance but from a decidedly male perspective, a middle-aged lonely-heart using whatever bits of wisdom he's gained in hopes of rekindling his youthful romance. It's a perspective that is refreshingly comedic and this exceptionally crafted literary novel turns the romance genre on its head.

The protagonist—Nate Evans—is a screenwriter with a lackluster career. The novel opens just after his home is destroyed by an accidental bomb from an Air Force plane. Sifting through the rubble, Nate ruminates on his lowly existence. If his life could have a mulligan—a golfing term for a do-over—and relive his romance with his high school sweetheart, then he would do it in a heartbeat. With his home destroyed, he moves back in with his parents and gets a job at his old high school to put him in close proximity to Jules—his old flame.

There's a breezy quality to Brill's prose that is reminiscent of a finely tuned screenplay, a snappiness that initially gives the narrative a similar pace to rom-com movies. But in between comedic high jinx and situational comedy is deep reflection from both Nate and the grown woman his high school crush has become, Jules. Their ruminations about life and love bring a weightiness to the novel from a decidedly more mature place in their lives, a perspective that is sorely needed in our youth-obsessed culture.

Highly recommended!