“Giorgio’s love of language shines in this poignant and thoughtful examination of the nature of relationships, the universal need for companionship, and the meaning of feminism in today’s world.” –Sublime Book ReviewOn the morning of her 55th birthday, Audrey takes stock of her life and finds it lacking. While she’s done well, she’s missing something important – a mate. She is also rocked by the … – a mate. She is also rocked by the 2016 election and wonders if it’s possible to be a feminist in the current political environment. In a fit of desperation, she ponders adopting a cat…but comes home with an iguana named Newt instead. Newt is destined to change Audrey’s life.
Next door, Frank, a widow, lives with his six parakeets. He develops a crush on Audrey, but is at a loss as to how to approach her. He’s shocked when his first wife, who he divorced, shows up on his doorstep to offer help, but he’s gobsmacked when his second wife, who died three years prior, shows up as a ghost to be his dating coach.
Birds, a lizard, a man, a woman…what happens is magic.
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Overall Rating = 4.38
Storyline & Concept = 5
Writing & Delivery = 4.5
Cover Marketability = 4.5
Editorial = 3.5
Audrey knows she doesn’t want to be the old lady with cats. But when she buys herself an iguana for her fifty-fifth birthday, she doesn’t expect that this simple act is the beginning of a voyage of self-rediscovery. Neither does she imagine that her next-door neighbor, a recent widower struggling with the demons of his past, will somehow figure in that journey. Along the way, the moments of angst are well-balanced with moments of humor and fun.
With today’s political environment as a backdrop, Giorgio shows us how youthful passions flame and subside, to be replaced by mature insight; how each individual’s life experience shapes how they deal with the world; and how Love and caring are a partnership and not a competition. Readers of up-market Women’s Fiction will likely also enjoy this novel.
Sublime Line: “Giorgio’s love of language shines in this poignant and thoughtful examination of the nature of relationships, the universal need for companionship, and the meaning of feminism in today’s world.”
If You Tame Me
Kathie Giorgio
Black Rose Writing, Oct 3, 2019
268 pages
Women’s Lit, Life Passages, Adult Fiction
Provided by NetGalley
Since the first time I saw this cover, I was fascinated with this book, but I had no idea what it was about. Finally, I read the synopsis because I just couldn’t stand not knowing. I requested the book and was approved for it. I sat down and started reading it. I set it aside for a day or so and thought about it almost constantly. Then I picked it back up and finished it. Trust me, the iguana on the cover is not the one who needs taming. Though he does bite.
His name is Newton or Newt for short. He’s called that because Fig Newton cookies are Audrey’s favorite and she didn’t want a cat, too cliche.
At 55 and single all her life, Audrey feels she needs to have a partner of some kind. She gets Newt from the local pet store and they bond quite well. She has bookshelves full of human relationship books and she’s read them all and that’s what she bases her relationship with Newt on. She treats him just as she would a human partner. Giving him his own space. Spending time with him. Talking with him about his day and hers. She has an electric blanket on her bed and he has an electric hammock to sleep in. He no longer stays in the glass tank she brought him home in. He has a large tree to climb in her front bay window, it’s a sunny spot and he can see her go off to work and come home. She’s created bricked corners in each room for him. She’s very careful with his diet.
But even this relationship with Newt doesn’t seem to be filling the need Audrey seems to be feeling. A friend she makes at work at the mall convinces her to join an online dating service. But there’s the very nice guy who owns the pet store, Dave. And then there’s her next-door neighbor with the six parakeets who cleared her driveway the last time it snowed. That would be Frank.
Frank has his own relationship problems going on. He was married to wife #1 and they didn’t want children, so they were fine. Then wife #1 decided she wanted children and divorced him. He got married to wife #2. Wife #2 died of cancer and Frank moved to a new house with no memories and got six parakeets. Lately, he’s been running into wife #1, who’s a widow now and lonely. And wife #2 is a ghost and keeps visiting him. She’s trying to keep wife #1 away, but help Frank find a new woman.
While all this is going on, Audrey reconnects with her best friend from college and they run up and down memory lane and rebond to create an all-new friendship that suits their new maturity. And Audrey has made several young friends who work at the mall as she does. At 55, suddenly her world has expanded just with her opening her mind and her world to Newt. This story is about passages and opening one’s mind and world to ideas and people you may not have considered before. Where one change leads to another and another. I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially to older readers who may be looking for a way to open their worlds a bit to some change. This is inspirational and fun.
If You Tame Me is a delightful novel with likable quirky characters and laugh out loud moments. Yet It addresses serious issues too which makes this book so much more than typical chick lit. I related to this book as a “woman of a certain age” and an animal lover but I think it will appeal to a wider audience as well.
A very good story. Audrey is 55yrs old and realizes that life is passing her by and she is not happy with how life is at the moment so she decides to do her own thing and make the best of what she has and get a cat!! Instead she gets an Iguana .But fate is a funny thing and has other plans for her and things start to happen. If you are in this generation you can really relate to this character! she is fun and determined . Throw in Frank the neighbor and his pets, ex wife and the ghost of his other wife and you are in for a fun ride. great storytelling pulls you along for the ride.