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Book Review By Harriet Klausner
Late Bloomer by Melissa Pritchard



Doubleday, Apr 2004, 23.95, 365 pp.
ISBN: 0385503040

In Tempe the single mother of a teenage daughter, Prudence True Parker visits the public library seeking books that will help her draft the syllabus of the fifteen week course, Advanced Personal Journey that she will teach at the local community college. While in the women's room of the library, she meets cross-dresser Mildred Crawley nee Digby Deeds. As Mildred, he/she write highly successful romance novels, but now he is dying. He believes that their meeting over the toilet bowls is fate dubbing her his heir while she figures he is mad. Digby gives her the rights to complete his Savage Passion series.

At a Native American fund raiser in Oklahoma, Prudence meets and shares a night of love making with Comanche Ray Chasing Hawk. Prudence returns home followed by Ray who moves in with her and her seventeen year old. Living research with Ray, Prudence tries to replace Mildred whose next book centers on a white woman/Indian chief romance.

LATE BLOOMERS is a romantic satire that contrasts “real life” with fiction. The troubled relationship between Ray and Prudence compares unfavorably with that in the novel that she is authoring.

Harriet Klausner



Plot & Themes
Time/era of story
Forbidden/mismatched love? Yes
How mismatched?

Main Male Character
Profession/status:
Age/status: - 20's-30's
If he's not white he must be... - indian

Main Female Character
Age/status: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
Unusual characteristics:

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - West

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
What % of story is romance related? - 70%
Focus of story - equally on him and her
How much dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
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