From Publishers Weekly
Apparently not one to miss a trend or popular spin, Bradford (Everything to Gain) weaves some New Age mysticism into this atypically short tale, a gender-reversed May-September romance that starts slowly but winds up handily resolving a rash of complications. Tom Cruise look-alike Jake Cantrell is 28; Maggie Sorrell is 43, a Bradford-style woman of hard-won independence and strength. In small-town Connecticut, they meet as volunteers on a community production of The Crucible: electrical whiz Jake does the lighting; interior designer Maggie does the sets. Attraction is instant, but the age barrier must be surmounted before the couple consummate their love (an event depicted in graphic detail). Meanwhile, Jake is trying to wean Amy, his dependent, depressive high-school love, whom he wants to divorce after nine years of drag-down marriage. Maggie, too, is suffering: left by her now-former husband for a younger woman, she has lost the affections of her 21-year-old twins to their wealthy father. Although all the characters seem designed merely to induce feel-good vibes in the reader, Amy-a cancer patient-is relatively compelling in that she undergoes a near-death experience after an auto accident. The aftermath of her NDE-instant enlightenment and the ability to read the future-is far-fetched, but it's gooey and sweet as well: just the right icing for this light and fluffy love cake. 750,000 first printing; $1 million ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; simultaneous HarperAudio; simultaneous large-print edition from G.K. Hall; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Publisher
As he approaches his 29th birthday, Jake Cantrell feels his life completely is stalled. He is estranged from his wife Amy, his childhood sweetheart, who has failed to grow up with him over the years.Desperately seeking a divorce, wanting to put more distance between them, and needing to concentrate on his new business, Cantrell moves to a new town: Kent, Connecticut. An electrical contractor, with an outstanding reputation and an extraordinary talent for creating special lighting effects, Cantrell becomes involved with an amateur theatrical group in his spare time. At the first meeting of the group, Cantrell encounters Maggie Sorrell, a good looking, charming woman of 44. Sorrell, an interior designer, will be working with Cantrell on the sets of the play,The Crucible.
Sorrell herself recently moved from Chicago to Kent after her lawyer husband left her for a younger woman. Now divorced and painfully out of touch with her two grown children, she hopes to start life anew in Kent.
In the process of renovating an old farmhouse for a client, Sorrell hires Cantrell as the electrical contractor. Working together on a daily basis, watching the old farmhouse being transformed into a warm, enduring home, they fall in love. Ahead lie obstacles -- the fifteen years difference in their ages, Amy Cantrell's sudden illness, her reluctance to divorce Cantrell and Sorrell's own inner turmoil. But together they ultimately overcome the odds and find happiness in another town. Emotionally gripping and uplifting, Love in Another Town is a dramatic and inspiring page turner guaranteed to touch the reader on many levels.