Thom Lemmons, Blameless

Blameless

Thom Lemmons

WaterBrook, May 2007, $12.99

ISBN: 1400071747

Dean of the Colleges Arts and Humanities, divorced Dr. Alexis Hartnett is a take-charge person who never shows emotion. Divorced Professor Joseph Barnes is a highly regarded teacher in spite of his cynical outlook. This pair could never find an attraction at least on the surface, but they do. Meanwhile Alexis' office assistant Lucy Conn is upset with her boss for neglecting her duties while pining over Joe; Lucy is a minority of one who loathes Joe.

Lucy concludes that Joe has dark secrets that he prefers hidden, but she will learn them and expose him. Meanwhile Joe works on a Hawthorne paper that parallels his precarious position at the school. He is falling in love with his superior, but knows nothing will come of it as he would have to reveal his sordid past to her. Alexis reciprocates in every way, including fear of testing love as she has ghosts too that she hides, but mostly worries that the new professor, after a great start, is beginning to fail at the job.

The cautious relationship between the two middle-aged educators is cleverly developed so that the audience understands why each hesitates when it comes to love. The contemporary tale links to biblical Job, and moreso Hawthorne is brilliantly interwoven into the solid inspirational storyline as Joe especially learns losing all is not necessarily the end because starting fresh might lead to something better and more meaningful. Although the key element leading to exposing Joe is Lucy detests him; yet her obsessive need to investigate the object of her hatred never comes across as plausible since readers never learn why she is so fixated on destroying him. Inspirational readers will enjoy Thom Lemmons' insightful tale.

Harriet Klausner