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Interior Design and Other Emotions by Kate ForestMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Interior Design by Kate Forest
I’ve always known that the couples in romances do not stand alone but stand in the context of their families and their communities. Interior Design takes it to another level. The structure of the book has all the standard romance cueing except it doesn’t. The first chapter is read at a rate that is so fast that you try to slow it down with the audiobook controls—which does not work. Then you realize the rate underscores the inner voice of the character— and even more so when you become locked into the cadence of the second protagonist. It seems—seriously—that more words and less punctuation are crammed into the sentences. The result is the perception of the characters racing thoughts — it’s not just the narration. Then that pace is contrasted with the plodding detail oriented voice of the second character— They are like two dancers moving separately until they come to a pas de deux and share one another’s rhythms.
This is a romance but also a mystery on so many levels. Finishing it makes you want to seek out more friends in different phases of life and physical states than ones-self. Interior Design deals with science & research, and art & design (as the therapy we know they can be). The doctor in me respects the accuracy of the clinical pictures transmitted through the voices of author Forest’s characters — seamlessly and without boring us. It's a bioethicist dream! It's my kind of book!
Interior Design is a well written, continuously character driven exchange. It paints a picture of an ethnic community with respect, complexity but with humor and wisdom. Interior design is riddled with mystery going far beyond any simple “Who Done It!” And finally, it tackles a couple of illnesses that could have swamped the story — but instead illnesses propel the romance. Thank you Kate Forest for writing this one, and for doing it so darn well! It really shows the power of romance as a genre.
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