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My Five Star Review: The Best Yet!
I have read the three previous books by Rebecca Branch and loved them all. Jail Bait is about the May-December relationship between Beth, 26 and Griff, 43. Complications arise due to Beth’s four siblings and Griff’s two grown daughters. Sexual tension pervades the book. Beth uses her abundant powers of intellect, business acumen and seduction to tip the scales in her favor. Griff, although initially reluctant, doesn’t stand a chance.
Characters and events in this and preceding books are based on personal experience, experiences of friends, and imagination. There is a heart wrenching account by a Ground Zero observer of the World Trade Center disaster. He discusses his injuries and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that haunted him long after.
Rebecca Branch has tremendous empathy and a great memory for conversation. Her characters come alive with all their flaws, virtues and compassion. This is one of my favorite books. I’ve read it twice and plan to read it again.
The Story
His wife was dead. The cerebral hemorrhage which finally claimed her after a terrible car accident had left him alone and feeling much older than his years displayed. He’d married young and half his life had been spent as a provider, a faithful husband and the father of two grown children. He felt he was far closer now at forty-four to his end, than to his beginning. He’d stopped living. His lawn untended, food of no importance, business in the dumps…only his dog, his constant companion, claimed his attention.
A walk in the park, his first in a month, finally got him out of his house. Kody, his bright white furry beast, always on display, always the most magnificent creature in the park, drew her to him. She did not see the pain or the suffering, the self-doubt and the resignation to a future alone. All she could see was the devilishly handsome guy…kind, gentle, cultured and intelligent. A man in need and yet a man who could give so much to those around him. It may have been his chick-magnet dog that brought her to him, but now it would be up to her to gain his attention and admiration before wrapping herself around him and never letting go.
He too, was stricken. How beautiful in face and figure she was…how kind and attentive. But while grateful to be brought back amongst the living, to feel masculine and drawn to her mystery, she was no more than a teen and a casual encounter in the park would be the limit of their meeting.
Trouble was, although an ingénue and half his age, there was no way in the world she would permit this man to get away. There was but one man like this in the world like him and she, with all her determination and charm, would never permit another to have him, for from the first moment her eyes had caught his…he would not be able to turn away and would be hers and no one else’s.
Jail Bait is Rebeca Branch’s first foray into the relationship between an older man and younger woman. A story of introspection and evaluation…of commitment and redemption, and of a burgeoning love which transcends age and experience to deliver these two people into a world of untold desire, fulfillment and happiness.
Unlike her previous books, Jail Bait is a quick read and does not delve into the art and history so familiar in her other work. This is a tale of family, self, and attraction, of need, desire and commitment. Come along for the journey.
About the Author
I am 49 years old, a wife and a mother of two young women. I live near New York City. I am an architect by trade but an art historian by education having attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate and Columbia for post graduate degrees. My father was an American archaeologist and my mother an Italian Lady. I worked as an assistant to the curator of Greco Roman arts at the Metropolitan Museum before leaving to take on my profession for need of income which the art world did not provide.
I began writing on a dare by friends who have encouraged me for years as I am a good storyteller and an avid reader. My first novel was Summer of 71, a story of romance and discovery set in Rome, a city with which I am very familiar and a place where I lecture on Roman history, architecture and culture bi-annually. My second book is Great Caesar’s Ghost which continues the story with my hero Maximillian DuPont and is a time travel romance skirting time periods from the first century BC through the modern day. My third work is titled A Roman Holiday and continues the series and has just been released. There will be at least two more books beyond these in this series. I also write short stories and a collection of these will be released shortly. They are about motherhood, romance and office affairs and escapades.
Although placed in the adult, and sometimes erotic category, my work is far more about self-awareness, relationships, coming of age, loss of innocence, personal development, reclamation, the culture of Italy, art and architectural history, an examination of the passage of time, food, and humor. I write as an adult to an adult audience and do not bury physical relationships behind closed doors. But what I write is loving and respectful of both genders, light and upbeat, fulfilling and satisfying. No one gets hurt, no one degraded. You should walk away from each of my books with a smile and an increased knowledge of the western world, Rome’s influence, politics, the social revolution, religion, and the inimitable wonder of a loving relationship between a good man and woman.
Dennis Cardiff 