3 out of 4 stars
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Written by Janet S. Kleinman, Flirting With Disaster: When Love & Nature Collide is a romance novel about finding love during the golden years. Gloria Simon is an attractive and intelligent widow who lives in South Florida. Her husband died a few years ago. She took care of him during the last years of his life while he suffered from Alzheimer's. For that reason, her life has been lacking passion for a long time. Gloria's love life changes when her high school sweetheart, Mickey Green, contacts her. She reminisces fondly about their coming-of-age years. Mickey, however, is married. While having an affair with Mickey, Gloria meets Henri Betencourt, an immigrant who comes from an important political family in Haiti. A disastrous earthquake strikes Haiti, making Gloria go to the Caribbean island to help children in need. Gloria's love life takes another turn when she meets another man, former Senator Lance Carter, while doing humanitarian work in Haiti.
Gloria has to decide which of the three men is best for her future in the mist of a natural disaster and its subsequent turmoil. Who will she pick? Mickey, her high school sweetheart, is married and has a gambling addiction. Henri is an incredible lover with a macho attitude and political aspirations. Lance is a distinguished government official who travels a lot working for the president of the United States.
What I liked the most about this romance novel was that the main character, Gloria, finds love again during her golden years. She finds herself having to choose between three men. Whether they are good or bad for her is beyond the point. The important thing is that Gloria's character shows that love is ageless. I did not identify with Gloria because I am in my thirties. However, I think Flirting With Disaster is a good read for women and men in retirement age.
Another aspect I enjoyed about this book is that Kleinman depicted aptly the culture and history of Haiti, including the catastrophic earthquake that hit the island in 2010. The reader can tell Kleinman did a thorough research about the culture and history of Haiti. Henri Betencourt, Pierre Betencourt, Lucia, and Captain Duval are the characters who bring alive the culture and politics of Haiti. Kleinman also did a sound job in portraying the damage, health crisis, hunger, and political unrest the earthquake caused in Haiti.
What I did not like about this book is that it has several errors. It has typos, grammatical errors, additional words, incorrect use of style, and spacing issues. An example is that paragraphs that should not be italicized are italicized. In addition, I found that characters were referred to by the wrong name a couple of times. For example, Mickey refers to his wife as Joanne, which is a mistake because her name is Judith. These numerous errors were distracting. In short, this book needs another editorial revision.
I rate Flirting With Disaster by Janet S. Kleinman 3 out of 4 stars. I deducted a star because the book has numerous errors, which I mentioned above. Overall, I enjoyed reading this story because a woman in her golden years finds love again. Reading this book was also a learning experience about Haiti. Note that this book has sexual and violent content. I recommend it to those who enjoy reading about romance and other cultures. I also think is a good read for people in their retirement years.
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Flirting with Disaster when Love and Nature Collide
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