One Degree of Separation: Amazon.ca: Karin Kallmaker: Books

Product Description

Book Description

Big city girl in a small town – Liddy Peel has culture shock.

Marian Pardoo, Reference Librarian for the Iowa City Public Library, would be happy if the woman she’s loved for years wasn’t already married. Annoyed by the thoughtless out-of-town Liddy, she isn’t prepared for the seething passion that erupts when Liddy careens into her meticulously controlled life.

Liddy has run two thousand miles from a devastating love affair. Now the idea of spending the sweltering summer watching the corn grow is driving her mad. Finding herself lusting after Marian the Librarian seems like yet another cosmic jest at her hopeless love life. The only thing that keeps her sane is the coffee.

In a town where everybody knows your name, the names of your exes, pets, and your third grade teacher, Marian is thankful that she and Liddy at least don’t have an ex-girlfriend in common.

One degree of separation is too close for comfort.

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Swear to freakin' god it's GREAT!, Jan 27 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: One Degree of Separation (Paperback)

Having just finished yet another formula romance where some traumatic past event keeps two women from accepting that they're in love for 249 pages (but they figure it out on page 250, end of story) I was feeling pretty jaded as I started One Degree of Separation.

I don't know how Karin Kallmaker does it! Fifteen romances and she nevers writes the same story twice. On the first page -- the first paragraph! -- she made me laugh. Then I laughed some more. Then, when Liddy Peel walks into the story in Chapter 2 I was on the floor.

Not that either character has to quip a joke every sentence. Nor is their humor based on belitting others as less cool than they are. (I hate that about some romances whose entire humor rests on making fun of other people.) It's their wry outlook on their *own* life that got the first giggle and from there I was completely hooked.

It has to be good writing for me to enthusiastically believe a rather improbable turn of events in a small town. And not only do I buy every bit of the plot, Kallmaker's erotic touch is so compelling that when Marian and Liddy look at each other the first time I positively *felt* the rush.

Marian and Liddy's courtship is set against the backdrop of a cast of well-defined secondary characters who swill coffee and drop amusing wisdom about such topics as what constitutes hot talk in bed, and if it's okay to date the ex of an ex. Marian, meanwhile, is trying to stay in control of her life, but Inner Slut and Inner Prude refuse to get along. Sophisticated, big-city girl Liddy knows she herself is still suffering angry depression from her last relationship, but swear to freakin' god, how can a librarian in Iowa freakin' City be so sexy? And such a great kisser? It's not fair!

When it became clear that both women had something in their past that still hurt and made it hard for them to trust that happiness could be real this time, I believed that too and it's the way Kalmmaker tells the story that makes it possible. And when Marian arrives on Liddy's doorstep in the middle of a rainstorm the night that follows is one of Kallmaker's hottest ever.

Taking place over just four days of sizzling Iowa summer, One Degree of Separation is the best lighthearted romance I've read in a long time. I am in awe of Kallmaker's range. Her latest before this, Maybe Next Time, spanned 40 years of the heroine's life, and was one of the most intense, wrenching romances I've ever read. Then Kallmaker turns around and delivers this amusing but never vicious, heartfelt but never sappy, steamy, engaging story of two ordinary, every day women who make you believe in the extraordinary power of love.

Once again, I ended a Karin Kallmaker romance absolutely certain that some day that kind of magic can happen to me.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Hot, Exciting, Funny - Everything you could want!, July 29 2005

By A Customer

This review is from: One Degree of Separation (Paperback)

I had so much fun reading this book - I was dismayed by how quickly I finished it. I couldn't put it down!

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4.0 out of 5 stars Not a Coming Out Story - Yay!, Jun 16 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: One Degree of Separation (Paperback)

There are a lot of things I like about this book - but what I like the most is that the lesbians in this book know they are lesbians. I get so tired of reading coming out stories. In this book, although there don't seem to be enough lesbians in town, at least the ones who are there take their lesbianism as just a fact of life and the story doesn't have to revolve around it. I loved the fact that one of the main characters was a librarian and all the references to librarians, especially since my partner is one. The mid-west college town setting was amusing. The reason I don't give this book 5 stars is that one of the character's constant swearing to herself annoyed me.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
This book was a delight! Karin Kallmaker deftly incorporated humor and real heart into this fun, emotional, and surprisingly spirited read. I highly recommend it.... Read more

Published on Jun 8 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars One of her best books this far
I have previously read some of Kallmakers books and I think that this one might be her best book this far. Read more

Published on May 21 2004