Love on the Line Book

IDENTITY, ATTITUDES, AND CULTURE COLLIDE AS A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER'S VALUES AND BACKGROUNDS ARE CHALLENGED BY EVERYONE AROUND THEM IN THIS MOVING, OFTEN HOMOROUS, AND UNFORGETTABLE NOVEL FROM LAURA CASTORO

It ain't easy being biracial and a trust fund baby, but blue-eyed Jesse Morgan is determined to just be herself at an eastern college-where no one will know who or what she is...unless she chooses to tell them. What Jesse doesn't yet realize is that "no past" doesn't equal "no problems."

High-powered executive Thea Morgan is marrying Rev. Xavier Thornton-the former athlete and successful black businessman-turned-pastor, a man she first fell in love with at sixteen. A fair-skinned black woman who cracked the glass ceiling in the Texas oil business, Thea assumes her identity difficulties are behind her. She hasn't yet met Xavier's new congregation in a down-on-its-luck Arkansas town...nor Mrs. Hattie Patterson-the matriarch of St. Hurricane Church who has fixed opinions about how a minister's wife should behave. Will Thea lose her struggles to win over Xavier's congregation, people who just don't understand her big-city ways? It will take every bit of her humor, business acumen, and just plain hard-loving to deal with her crisis of faith and the sinking feeling that, just maybe, love can't conquer all.

Like mother, like daughter, Thea and Jesse discover that sometimes to get what you need most you to have to put everything, even love, on the line.

"An authentic, warmly told story of love lost and reclaimed." -A'Lelia Bundles, On Her Own Ground

"Kudos to Laura Castoro for creating an amazingly realistic romance novel that speaks to the pain, happiness, love and drama that transcend all races and cultures." -Janis Kearney, Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir

Publishers Weekly

Laura Castoro's newest explores blended family relationships. Thea Morgan had a brief fling with Xavier Thornton when she was 16 but then Xavier went on to athletic fame, Thea married a white man, had a blue-eyed daughter and became a young widow. When the story starts, that daughter, Jesse, is about to go to college, and Xavier, now a pastor, has found Thea again, and they are engaged to be married. However, when Xavier becomes the minister of a smalltown Arkansas church, hostile churchgoers, the demands on Thea's time and a profound unhappiness with smalltown life take their toll. Meanwhile, Jesse is having trouble fitting in at college. Thea and Jesse are well-drawn characters, strong independent women who readers will love. Xavier, however, is far too perfect to be interesting; it doesn't matter who he is, but merely what he represents-a good man and a relationship worth fighting for. While this African-American novel won't distinguish itself in the field, it is a satisfying read. (Feb.)

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