THE NEARNESS OF YOU - Dorothy Garlock
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN:  978-1-45552-735-9
July 2017
Historical Romance

Hooper's Crossing, New York - 1952

In the middle of a dark night, Lily Denton is packed and waiting by the curb for her best friend, Jane Dunaway.  The two young women are running away to New York City, bent on leaving their small town of Hooper's Crossing for bigger dreams in the busy metropolis.  But at the last minute, Lily panics and demands that Jane leave without her.  Yes, this town is small, nestled as it is in the shadows of the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York state, but for all her dreams, Lily just cannot disappoint her father, overbearing though he might be.  Lily lost her mother when she was just six-years-old, and now, even though she's twenty-one, Morris Denton still controls almost every aspect of his daughter's life.  The town mayor for the past ten years, he tries to run Lily's life just like he runs Hooper's Crossing.  He got her a job at the library; he still tells her what to wear and when to be home.  Lily wants so much to be away from this town, but tonight is not the night to flee.

Boone Tatum only wanted one perfect picture of the sunrise over New York City, unfortunately, he didn't get it.  Instead, he was arrested for trespassing!  His boss, Walter Bing at Life Magazine, bailed him out, but his penance is an assignment in the middle of nowhere, taking pictures of a blasted Fall Festival!  Boone has been all over the world and is highly decorated for his acclaimed photographs; he is supposed to be on assignment in Havana, Cuba.  Instead, he's being punished.  Oh, Boone is thankful that his employers saw fit to bail him out of jail, but to be sent to the back-of-beyond with a fresh-out-of-college reporter in tow just to take pictures of a small town hoop-de-do is beyond belief. This assignment is way below his talents, but it's either that or be fired, so Boone loads up his old Chrysler with his yellow Labrador Daisy in the backseat and reporter Clive Negly in the front.  Poor Clive is allergic to Daisy's fur, but at least if he's sneezing his brains out every few seconds, he can't talk Boone's ears off on the drive through upstate New York.

Randall Kane is preparing to rob a bank.  The Hooper's Crossing Bank and Trust to be exact.  He's partnered up with Leo Burke to pull the job off, but Leo is driving him crazy.  The old man has certain rules he follows when he stakes out and subsequently pulls off a robbery, and Randall thinks he's just wasting time.  They're waiting for final day of the Fall Festival, when all that lovely cash will be deposited into the bank's safe, then all Randall has to do is crack the safe, and he and Leo will be rich and on their way out of this tiny town.  Simple.  And maybe he can have a little fun while he's waiting for the right moment to finish the job, that cute little number he ran into outside the bank might be good for some laughs,  She said her name was Lily, now where to find her?

Boone plans to take a few photographs, get out of town, then onto Havana as fast as he can manage.  But when he runs into a beautiful girl and snaps her picture, he knows he has to find her again and get to know her.  Ultimately, that one picture leads them all into a story of danger, deception and mystery as Randall is caught in the camera's flash and is determined to find and destroy the photograph at all cost.  Meanwhile, Lily and Boone stir up a friendship and begin an unlikely romance.

THE NEARNESS OF YOU is another wonderful romantic suspense that Ms. Dorothy Garlock is well known for.  (I absolutely love every one of her books!) Each and every character comes to life in this fresh and dynamic story full of delightful twists and turns, romance, excitement, and lots of small town atmosphere.  Boone and Lily are near opposites; he is a man who has traveled the world; Lily is a naive girl who has never been out of Hooper's Crossing, and together they develop a fascinating relationship that takes the reader away into another dimension.

THE NEARNESS OF YOU is one book you will not put down.  Don't miss it!

Diana Risso