GUEST REVIEW: Lighting the Flames by Sarah Wendell
“The one with the blonde hair” is how my oldest friend describes me to her friends, who still wonder who she is talking about. That’s because I am no longer blonde—my hair went dark in college and now going gray more than anything else. But as a kid the blonde hair was kind of my calling card, and so to the people who have known me longest, the description remains.
Why tell you this? Because Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches has written a lovely romance about that point in two people’s lives, when they each realize that the other has grown up and is “no longer blonde.”
I am Jewish so my interest is always piqued when Jews are featured in romances. I was excited to read that Wendell had self-published a Hanukkah novella. I like the Smart Bitches web site (disclosure: I have written a couple of guest reviews, and have had occasional offline email discussions with her). But I was also a little nervous on her behalf, since she did what I have thought about many times—taking that first step and writing a romance. I assumed it would be readable, since she’s a pro and knows the value of editors. But, would I like the style? Would I like the story? Would I believe the world she created?
The answers are two resounding yesses, and one comme ci, comme ça.
Genevieve and Jeremy have been the best of summer sleepaway camp buddies as campers and then as counselors, but they never moved beyond being summer friends. Now out of college (implied) and starting careers, they both are facing the realization that things are changing and returning to camp every summer may no longer be an option. The story is mostly set during an experimental week of winter camp that coincides with Hanukkah. The camp director aims to impress the board of directors and to extend the family feel for summer campers and their parents.
The story centers on how people mature emotionally: who we are as adults versus who we were as children, the camp person versus who one is the rest of the year, and the family created by camp versus the one we are born into.
At the start of the story, Genevieve and Jeremy have not seen each other in more than a year. Each has gone through major life changes: Genevieve lost her parents in an accident and Jeremy settled into a somewhat unexpected career given his apparently goofy, “try anything for fun” camp personality. Wendell portrays this all in a pretty subtle way early in the story, as the two notice that each has really become an adult physically, with a man’s beard for Jeremy and a more mature presence for Genevieve.
Genevieve is rebuilding her life after that great loss, and is reconnecting with her camp family, the only “home” she has left. Jeremy is wrestling with his role within his family and working hard to reconcile that role with who he truly is as an adult.
Jeremy and Genevieve initially revert to their camp personalities, but eventually their increasing maturity asserts itself. The emotional tension between the two ratchets up in a believable way, as they start to share their stories of the last year. Having related to each other as pals for so long, when Genevieve and Jeremy each finally realize that the other shares the attraction they each feel, it rang true. I also loved that the physical attraction did not require “tab A into slot B.” Closed door romances do not get the credit they deserve, and sometimes it seems like many writers have an “eat her, screw her, repeat” thing going on and the sex gets dreary.
The dialog is crisp and funny, and accurately reflects a long friendship. The other characters—camp director, camp cook, board members—never come off as cardboard, reacting to situations as real people might.
There were some issues for me, related to world building. The story is set in 2014, with winter camp centering on Hanukkah, which started on December 16 this year. I found it hard to buy into the idea that families would pull their kids from school a week before the holiday break to go to winter camp.
The larger timeline confused me. I thought that Jeremy and Genevieve had both taken a year off from camp but at times the book referred to “last year” when recalling the last time they had been at camp together. Their age was a little confusing as well—Genevieve’s career choice meant she had graduated from college (as did Jeremy’s) but they both seemed a little old to still be working at summer camp.
By far the biggest issue for me was that Jeremy and Genevieve never saw each other outside of camp. I went to sleepaway camp as a camper and counselor, and we saw our camp friends who lived in nearby towns regularly, and wrote to and called the ones who lived far away. As we got older and were able to travel independently we set up occasional visits and out of camp reunions.
Spoiler (spoilers): Show
Overall Wendell has the feelings right: the bond of attending camp, the anticipation of seeing your camp friends again after a year, the comfort of a familiar place and its rituals, and the wistful feeling for a place that seems to stay the same as you move on in life. And most of all, she gets how two good friends learn to look at each other as adults and then realize they are in love.
Grade A-/B+ (I hate grading the good ones—so much easier to grade something one does not like).
SusanR
Was it specified that these kids attended public schools? If not then they could be students at a private Jewish school where Jewish holidays are observed. It is even possible for an American public school to give all the kids (whether Jewish or not) the Jewish holidays off, if the school district has a sizable Jewish population. One of the schools I attended did that.
I changed the grade category at the top of the review to reflect the grades you gave the book. (And welcome to the club. When I’m really stuck for how to grade I take a look at the review grade explanation on the For Readers page).
Great review! I just heard about this story the other day actually, and I already put it on my TBR pile. Hopefully I’ll find it as readable as you did.
I read SBTB regularly and I downloaded this when it was released, but haven’t read it, partly because of time and partly because of that “what if I don’t like it?” thing you describe. Which is odd. I sometimes I have trouble reading something by someone I know. As a visual artist, I’m friends with lots of fellow artists and designers whose work isn’t to my taste and I’ve been to a lot of art openings that really weren’t to my taste, and it’s not particularly traumatic. But reading is different somehow. One of my brother’s best friends from high school is a YA author and I’ve bought her books, to be supportive, but never read them. Not even after one won an award.
I was a counselor at a small summer camp and I have a lot of feelings about camp and growing up and I’m tempted by this.
I bought it when it was released and loved it! It was fun, interesting, different. I hope Sarah keeps on writing.
I bought this over the holidays and am saving it for a rainy day. Glad to hear it’s so good. For what it’s worth, though I am not Jewish I did work briefly as the office manager at a Jewish camp. And last December there was a week long camp – and it was very full.
I loved it! Gave it as holiday gifts for family readers….even my non-romance reader cousins loved it….my 84 yr old mother loved it. So happy for Sarah and I hope she keeps writing.
This is currently available free (at least on Amazon).
I felt the love story often took a backseat to the camp shenanigans, but still enjoyed the romance. We were given a glimpse of their lives away from camp, but I wanted more. I also wish we’d gotten some closure on the issues the hero had with his father and golden-boy-but-really-ne’er-do-well brother , but I guess that was true to life. Overall I enjoyed it.
It’s also free at Kobo, Google, and All Romance eBooks.
What is the heat level of this book?
I guess I need to pick it back up. I tried plowing through the first part where they were playing in snow and having trouble with a gate and a supervisor. Quite frankly, I was getting a lot of telling and not much showing. And I was getting quite confused about the sanitation truck and the joke. I just wasn’t getting it.
I will wait until I have a quiet moment and try again.
I liked your review although, considering the things you found wrong with it, (and are wrong with it, it’s not just you, I was confused in too many places) I would have expected a lower grade.
@Janine, I never thought of Jewish day schools :). But I have never heard of public schools that give Hanukkah off unless it coincides with Christmas (or Thanksgiving, like in 2013). Keep in mind that Hanukkah is not a religious holiday; it is mostly about the ritual of celebrating a victory. It gained traction with the increasing commercialization of Christmas. B
@Michele Mills, there is a focus on in the buildup and attraction, not in the actual sex. There is no description of the actual deed, just what leads to it. Does that help?
@anon, the timeline confusion kept it from being a true A, for me. Overall the story resonated with me personally in a number of different ways, and so I was really touched by it.
It was such a gentle, loving, caring story- I would say warm as the heat level.
@susan: Yes, you’re likely right. I’m familiar with the history of Hanukkah. One of the public schools I went to had about a 40% Jewish student body and the whole school closed for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. I don’t think they closed for Hanukkah, but at the same time, in that kind of school district, it’s probably not impossible for a parent to pull their kid out for it if they really want to. Most of the schools I went to were different though; I had to have a note from my parents to take Yom Kippur off, and even that could be a hassle — at one school we had to explain that it was the holiest day of the year.
@Janine, all the towns around me close the public schools for at least the first day of Rosh Hashonah, and definitely for Yom Kippur. But going back about 10+ years, I know that at least one town near me (one that has 2 synagogues) did not, because my friend in that town was complaining that her daughter’s teacher had a test scheduled on that day! And time off at Passover is hit or miss–it depends on when the school board schedules the spring holiday (known in the old days as the Easter break).
In Montgomery County, Maryland, the public schools close for the first day of Rosh Hoshanah and for Yom Kippur. When my husband was school age it wasn’t that there were so many Jewish students but because there were so many Jewish teachers who took those days off. Hanukkah, not so much.
Perhaps the children are not in Jewish day schools but in any private school. The phrase around Washington DC regarding private schools is that “the more you pay, the less they go”. Winter break could conceivably begin that early at such a school; otherwise you’re correct that I don’t see parents pulling their children out of class for this.
Meg Wolitzer’s “The Interestings” (a very different kind of book) is also about the lifelong bonding that occurs among a group of campers.