What do you do when your life doesn’t follow the plan you had in mind?
A common theme in queer media is coming to terms with a piece of your identity that doesn’t fit the life manual you were given. And that looks different for everyone, even those who aren’t in the LGBTQ+ community. Some people understand and accept how they’re different as early as their childhood/teenage years, and for others it takes more time. And some people get so caught up in who they think they’re supposed to be that they never accept their true selves at all.
It’s hard to make peace with who you truly are when you have a myriad of influences trying to lay the groundwork for you. But there’s beauty in authenticity, in being who you are and loving who (or what) you love. This is the crux of Rebekah Faubion’s 2024 romance novel The Lovers.
Kit Larson is an online professional tarot reader. She lives according to the Hollywood script laid out by her parents, and dreams of being the ingénue in her own life. Julia Kelley is a wedding planner hoping to break out and start her own business. The two of them used to be the best of friends, closer than sisters. But the fear of bringing their love out into the sun drove them apart. And after ten years, a spiritual-themed wedding at Joshua Tree brings them back together.
“Let’s go on a date. A real one. Like at a restaurant with fabric napkins, she’d said. I’d said yes, and I had wanted to mean it. In the sunlight, I knew that I couldn’t.”
Both romantic leads are playing roles in their lives that aren’t true to who they are. Kit tries to be the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of her own life with a Hollywood happy ending. But while the persona is perfect for her work as a spiritual influencer, she’s ignoring what she really wants for the sake of following an internalized screenplay. Meanwhile, Julia has convinced herself she’s a buttoned-up perfectionist, but her reunion with Kit reminds her that this wasn’t always who she was. She used to be someone who didn’t care about the rules, or what other people thought of her. And bringing the two of them back together helps both Kit and Julia become their true selves, the selves that had always been hiding under the facades they were playing.
Another key character to mention here is Piper, Julia’s unscrupulous ex-girlfriend conspiring to win her back. She, too, is playing a role to appease her New England rich family and fit into high society. But unlike the two leads, Piper gets so caught up in who she thinks she’s supposed to be that her expectations become her downfall.
It’s interesting that this story is told with the backdrop of new age spiritual practices in the desert. There’s a lot of playacting in spiritual entertainment, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from that. There’s also an acknowledgment that these practices aren’t for everyone, and Kit herself admits she might rely on tarot too much. That said, the rituals also hold a lot of meaning for the people who partake in them. According to Kit, tarot can’t tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow, but it can help you reflect on how your life has gone and how you can influence the direction it’s going next. This depiction of spirituality reminds us all that fate is always at work even if we can’t see what’s happening behind the scenes.
The Lovers is a fluff piece, but it’s one I enjoy a lot. With the sizzling chemistry, the emotional beats, and the decadence of a luxury resort, this romance is a must-read for fans of the genre.
Final rating: 4.5/5
Many thanks for reading.
If you like the work I do and want to see more of it, please consider joining me over on Patreon. For as little as $5.00 a month, you can get early access to book reviews, writer’s updates, and chats about books and reading. But wait, there’s more! Join my Short Story tier for $10.00 a month, and you get access to bonus content like editorials and short stories. And if you have a little extra to spare, joining my Novel tier for $15.00 a month will grant you exclusive sneak peaks of upcoming projects, lost content, and the option to be named in the Acknowledgements of any book I publish.
To see more of my work and support what I do, please visit https://patreon.com/LGAlfonso and consider becoming a member. Hope to see you there!
