REVIEW: One of a Kind by Jane Lovering
A long-held secret, and a beautiful heart hoping to be understood.
Cressida Tarbet loves her job at an animal rescue centre, even if it means she’s resigned herself to scrimping to make ends meet – a lifestyle far removed from her best friend Ivo’s, in his ancestral gatehouse stuffed with antiques and art.But although their upbringings were different, Ivo has held Cress’s heart ever since she clapped eyes on him at university. The trouble is – she has never told him. So, when a mystery and a baffling crime throw Cress and Ivo together, she can’t help but wonder if fate is telling her something.
As the puzzle takes them from beautiful Yorkshire, to the stunning Isle of Wight, the pair get closer. Ivo begins to understand the cause of Cress’s risk-aversion and she puts her irritation at his brilliant mind to one side as she starts to appreciate Ivo’s uniqueness. But then the unthinkable happens and their worlds are turned upside down, and Cress has to wonder if fate was calling after all…
“Justice for Squirrels!”
Dear Ms. Lovering,
I saw you were going to have a new book out and I skipped with happiness. Yay another Yorkshire lass will find twue lurve. Only, I must be honest. At the 25% mark, I had to talk myself into picking the book back up. Only some doozy already posted reviews and your stellar track record kept me going. In the end, I am very glad I stuck with it but I just want readers to be aware.
Cressida and Ivo have been friends since uni when posh Ivo showed up looking all Sebastian Flyte-ish complete with a rubber duck. Cressida hides her yearning heart as Ivo dresses “as though Beau Brummell had found William Morris and the pair of them had discovered Rihanna.” Though he and Cressida are friends, Ivo dates a string of posh women who all look as if they do interior design and dabble in modeling. Cressida has a History degree from Cambridge but now ekes out a living doing wild animal rescue which is not nearly as cute as it sounds.
When Ivo wakes her up while Cressida is home, in bed with a ghastly cold, she is at first disinclined to listen to him but when he cajoles her to the scene of a death on the moors, Cressida is astonished to discover there’s a red squirrel involved. An obviously tame, hand raised red squirrel when no red squirrels have been wild in Yorkshire in decades. WTF? Ivo thinks something is up and is determined to crack the case and break the story. But what is behind “Fred” being there and is it more than Cress and Ivo bargain for?
Let’s get this over with. The first fourth of the book was like trying to extract a car stuck in deep clay mud with bald tires. About every 10 pages, the same information got repeated and nothing seemed to actually be happening. I stared at my ereader in dismay. I read other reviews. Then I decided to keep reading to the halfway mark and see if things improved. Luckily they did.
It was very clear to me, even if Cressida who had known Ivo for years didn’t see it, that Ivo has ADHD. This is not just an affectation description but will play a major role in the outcome of the story. Cressida and Ivo have been friends for years but thinking that she would never fit into his lifestyle, Cressida has hidden her feelings. Ivo eventually calls Cressida on why she is the type to not try for more. There is also a reason for that which makes sense once Cressida tells Ivo all about her background. Yay for all that.
After Ivo does a little investigative work about the dead man and they discover where Fred the squirrel ought to be, Cressida and Ivo head there. Ivo tells and keeps telling Cressida that his brain works differently than most people’s. He sees different connections, thinks in different ways, puts things together differently and something is telling him that things aren’t quite right. This is when the thriller part of the book kicks in and once that happens, I was glued to the book. The situation is dire, the villains are evil, and will our MCs escape the trap and live to tell the tale? Like I said, I was glued. Things come together and in a way that makes sense. Yay for all that.
The romance is a sweet and gentle one. If these two had tried for something earlier on when they first met, I’m not sure they would have been ready. It takes a while before they both own up to how they feel and that they’ve felt that way for a while but never dared dream … I like that both are also honest that they’re not going to have a neurotypical life. Ivo stresses that he’s faced lots of romantic rejection from those skinny damn models who just couldn’t deal with him. But I think that Cressida, knowing him for years and now aware of how he sees and experiences the world, is ready. Plus they’re going to get Fred, for a while. B
~Jayne
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More Jane Lovering and justice for squirrels. I must learn more. Thanks, Jayne.
@Darlynne: Just some general background for anyone who isn’t aware – My understanding is that the native British red squirrel is being outcompeted by the (dastardly) imported North American gray squirrel so that’s why Fred the red squirrel being where he is, is surprising to Cressida. Squirrel rescue plays a large part in the story.