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Pages: 39
Goes Well With: Veggie pizza and herbal tea
February is the month for love stories—as well as hearts and flowers and boxes of chocolate. But instead of picking up a spicy romance about a couple of unrealistic twenty-somethings for this month’s romantic reading, you might want to try a more grown-up romance—like author D. P. Hewitt’s King Arthur’s Last Knight.
This sweet and innocent love story finds comfortably-married retiree Jim Dunn falling for another woman. While selling hand-crafted wooden furniture at a craft show, Jim meets Jill, a recently-divorced writer who hires him to build a library in her rundown old house. As he spends his days working in her home, he finds that not only is he enchanted by her beautiful green eyes but he simply enjoys her company.
The relationship is perfectly platonic, but Jim’s grown-up crush leads him to eat a little healthier, exercise a little more, and take care of himself a little better. It also makes him dread the day that the library is completed.
King Arthur’s Last Knight tells a charming story about puppy love at an older age. Jim isn’t a love-struck teenager or a frat boy on the prowl; he’s a retired teacher with a wife, kids, and a few grandkids, too. He’s a lovable everyman—your dad, your uncle, your next-door neighbor—not the kind of character who usually finds himself at the center of a romance novel. And that’s a big part of the story’s appeal. Jim has thinning hair and an expanding waistline, and he’s okay with that—until this unexpected crush makes him stop and take notice of his own flaws.
And, really, that’s basically the extent of the story: just a simple crush. From the start, Jim knows that this relationship is nothing more than a working relationship turned easy-going friendship. There’s no chemistry, no unspoken invitations, and no overwhelming romantic tension. Perhaps that makes it sound dull—just some old guy dreaming about a romance that he knows will never happen. And perhaps that gives the whole thing a bittersweet undertone. But that allows the story to be more than just another romance novel; it allows the author to tell a story about the people who come into our lives—to shake things up, to inspire us to try something new, and to change the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
King Arthur’s Last Knight isn’t the typical romance. It’s innocent and charming—and often unexpected. Though the ending feels rather abrupt—and it could have benefitted from a few more pages—it’s a sweet alternative to the same old romance.
Ed. Note: For more on King Arthur’s Last Knight, visit The Wild Rose Press.
