Overall Grade: A
Tropes: second chance; forced proximity; cheating; 50s vibes in the modern day; past traumas = secrets
“Sure. We’re all actors in this thing called life. We take on roles: spouse, parent, child, friend, boss, employee … lover. […] We don’t even know why we’re here. To make the world a better place? To love? To procreate? To simply exist? Or is it a game? No one knows. But we don’t know what else to do. So here we are doing whatever the ‘thing’ is. And we have traditions and rules to live by that are supposed to make it easier and perhaps give life more meaning…”
Reading a Jewel E. Ann story requires the act of perseverance. Some might say, “why should I dedicate myself to the devastation wrought by her storytelling?” Others, such as myself, would respond, “because the best things in life come after a little bit of pain.” Consider this your warning about Jewel E. Ann’s newest fare, The Homemaker.
Why I consistently return to the pages of Jewel E. Ann’s books is her intentionality in storytelling. I won’t name her peers, but romance can sometimes grow stale. I love it for its promise of a happy ending, whether that means “for now” or “forever”. With a Jewel E. Ann romance, you never know what lies in the pages. You know it should end with a HEA, but she writes slivers of doubt into her works as her MMCs and FMCs struggle with the troubles of life. Even deeper, Jewel E. Ann thrives on toying with the line of cheating in many of her stories. I’ve told fellow readers that I will avoid a cheating trope with everything in my being, yet I’m drawn to the interrogation that Jewel E. Ann takes with this trope, artfully illustrating its blurred lines. It’s this almost academic pursuit of undoing standard tropes, one like cheating, that drives readers to her romances because they aren’t your standard fare; they are simply more.
The Homemaker is more of what Jewel E. Ann does well. Murphy and Alice, her MMC and FMC, are just like us, real people dealing with the difficulties of life. Like many of us who are dealt poor hands of trauma through life experiences, Murphy and Alice respond as regular people do: through escape, humor, chemistry, and eventually finding love when it seems impossible. Jewel E. Ann’s capacity in drawing characters that feel real, while placing them in difficult situations, endears them to her readers. We see parts of ourselves in the fictionalized lives of Murphy and Alice. Usually, I feel a strong affinity for a particular character; however, this isn’t the case with The Homemaker’s main characters. Even the wealthy Hunter, Vera, and Blair Morrison are written for Jewel E. Ann’s readers to like, as she uses humor and real-life situations to illustrate their world.
The Homemaker beautifully asserts that our lives have worth; that we are worthy. After devastation, through moments of beauty, during times of fear, and especially with the love of a lifetime, we must be present, not choosing the sidelines of our lives. Jewel E. Ann has once again imagined the “things” in our lives that make life worth living, and we are reminded to live them, even if for a “fortnight.”
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 