LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 21 February 2007.
Pearl, a teenage beauty seeking love, makes a terrible mistake. Leonard, her five-year old son must live with it and lonely Mitch, her 25-year old neighbour, infatuated by an older woman, takes the boy on. Each tells their tale. This is a story of love, centring on a very special brand of ‘forever love’ which is beautifully explained in the voice of a sensitive, highly astute, innocent boy. It is a gem of a novel, sweet without being saccharine, tender without being sentimental and sad without being a “weepy”. It’s a deep tale of human nature, simply told and powerful for being so.
Comparison: Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom, Ben Sherwood.
Sarah Broadhurst
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Love in the Present Tense Synopsis
‘So much of how it was started when that cop got out…. But I didn’t know all this when it first happened. I didn’t know there would ever be a Leonard, or that this man would be his father, or that anyone would have to die…’
Leonard is an eerily wise five-year-old boy with asthma, terrible eyesight, and the ability to captivate everyone he meets.
Pearl is Leonard's devoted teenage mother, desperately trying to hide a violent secret from her past.
Mitch is Leonard’s 25-year-old next-door neighbour, busy running his own company and entertaining the Mayor’s wife.
Then one day Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch, and never returns.
How do you go on loving someone who isn’t there? As truth and fiction, memory and dreams collide, Mitch finds himself learning from a surprising source the true, magical definition of love.
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Press Reviews
Catharine Ryan Hyde Press Reviews
'A sweet and honest look at the pains and pleasures of love, and who could not fall in love with Leonard—what a beautifully drawn character'
Jane Green
'Hyde excels in her story of a love that transcends time, place and human weakness'
Publishers Weekly
Author
About Catharine Ryan Hyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of four critically acclaimed novels including, PAY IT FORWARD, named an ALA Best Book of 2001. It was adapted into a major Warner Brothers feature film staring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, and has been published in twenty languages.
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