Return to Us by Julie Cross – a Review
Description:
Summer is definitely heating up…
So yeah, that really happened. Karen’s fist connecting with TJ’s face.
Not only is TJ dealing with a decent sized bruise on his face where Karen gave her best attempt at a knock-out match, now he’s got some explaining to do after Jordan finds out what happened.
Karen’s not ready to forgive TJ for his tough-love tactics to help get her bar routine back in full swing, but she is ready to figure out how to get through to Jordan. He’s being a complete idiot, not dealing with his health issues, forcing her to keep things a secret from Coach Bentley.
With her teammate, Stevie’s, help Karen comes up with a plan to steer Jordan in the right direction—all she needs is a night alone with him and the hiking and camping expedition he promised her weeks ago might be the perfect opportunity.
Or her plan could backfire and he could slip further away from her.
While Karen and Jordan are out playing lumberjack couple in the Pocono Mountains, TJ is dealing with a stranger trying to give him advice on his tumbling, some pretty overt advances from one of Nina Jones’ gymnasts (aka: off limits), and a random hook-up that will most likely end up being a big mistake.
Review:
In Return to Us by Julie Cross, we return to the lives of our wonderful heroes, Karen and Jordan from her full length novel, Letters to Nowhere. To give you an update, Julie Cross has been giving us glimpse into their lives, with short stories that pick up pretty much after the last novella. The Letters to Nowhere series has a gymnastic background theme, with watching Karen and Jordan fall in love and learn to deal with the hectic and demanding life of a gymnast, as well as trying to cope with their sexual feelings for one another. In the last novella, the story left off Karen angry at TJ (he has a bigger role in this story), as well as her trying to cope with Jordan’s refusal to take care of his health issue.
In Return to Us, we spend some time in the gym, as they continue to practice to prepare for the Olympics trials, but the main focus of this story was more about Karen and Jordan working around their feelings for each other, and Karen’s determination to force Jordan to talk to his father to get help. The side story is also about TJ and Stevie, who continue to antagonize each other; but you find yourselves rooting for them to be together.
It is always a joy to come back to Karen and Jordan and their friends. I love the gymnastic background, and look forward to finding out if Karen, Stevie and the others will make the team, not to mention watching Karen mature in her feelings for Jordan. I would prefer this to be a full book, rather than these short stories, since they are too short & fast; we don’t spend enough time with them, nor enough of the story. I always find these short stories to be very difficult to write reviews, as the description tells a lot.
Julie Cross is a fabulous writer, and her honors for Letters to Nowhere prove it. If you have not read Letters to Nowhere, I suggest you do so now. Perhaps when you do, Julie will put all the short stories into a full 2nd book for LTN.
Reviewed by Barb
