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The old adage “You can’t go home again” is often very real, but for Vera Eastman, it is a massive understatement. Vera left home eleven years ago after losing her mother to breast cancer, changed her name, and began a very successful career as a porn star. Her seven-figure salary and multimillion-dollar, female-owned porn business might be acceptable in SoCal, but in her hometown of Grenadine, Michigan, she is a pariah. After a breast cancer scare, Vera goes back home to fulfill her mother’s bucket list. With an estranged father, a grandmother she believes is dead, and a sexy ex-boyfriend who haunts her dreams, Vera wants to get in, keep a low profile, and run back to her best friends and fellow porn stars, Jasmine and Payton. But when she discovers her grandmother is still alive and her ex is now an even sexier fireman, Vera knows leaving may be easier said than done.
When Vera wrecks her exotic sports car, she has the perfect excuse to stick around awhile despite the stares and hateful whispering that surround her everywhere she goes in town. But the longer she lingers, the more demons there are to confront – and more questions arise within her whether her financial success is genuinely the kind of success she really wants.
Family isn’t just those connected by blood. Sometimes, the strongest familial bonds are those people create by choice. When Vera left home, she met the women who would become her lifesavers, Jasmine and Payton. These women are beyond important to Vera. They gave her a family when her own had deserted her and forced her away. Without Payton, Vera would never have gotten clean and turned her life around. Though many would argue becoming a porn star isn’t exactly a significant life change, that change, partially facilitated by Payton, created the career for which Vera feels very accomplished. Throughout the novel, the text messages between these three women add more than just humor. It’s that “girl-bond,” with which many women identify. They are her rocks, giving her advice and acceptance.
Another important theme of the novel is a lesson Vera learns throughout her journey through her mother’s bucket list. Home isn’t really a place. It is a feeling. From the moment she sees Jack Reeves, her childhood sweetheart and one true love, memories flood her heart and leave her stunned in their ferocity. The familiarity gives Vera a feeling of true peace, a comfort she hasn’t had since her father told her to go and never come back. Though she had been in relationships since she left Grenadine at eighteen-year-old, she had never really connected with anyone. Jack, as it turns out, feels the exact same way. The two have more than history; they have love, undeniable and complete. She comes to see that he is home, more than any location can ever be, and he accepts her with open arms, just like a home should, and not even a successful career can take the place of that feeling.
Prejudice is another significant part of the novel. Grenadine is a small town with all the drama contained therein. Everyone knows everyone, and news travels faster than social media. Vera immediately feels that prejudice, getting kicked out of her B&B before she even unpacks her suitcase despite her pleas to allow her to stay since that is one item on her mother’s list. Though Vera feels no shame in her porn-star status, she can’t help but be affected by some of the townspeople’s disdain. When she rear-ends the most prominent, loudest busybody in town, her hopes of getting out unscathed in this emotional battleground are shattered.
Despite her kindness and philanthropy, many refuse to see her as more than trash, especially her own father. Without Jack, her feisty Grandma Bea, and her lifelong friend Franky, she would have run away and never looked back–again! But Vera isn’t the only character who daily runs the gauntlet. Franky experiences his own brand of prejudice as a trans man, and Grandma Bea, the owner of an adult novelty store known as Happy Endings, isn’t exempt either. However, Grenadine isn’t a typical small town, and somehow, Vera, Bea, and Franky all find a place in this anomalous cast of characters that will keep the reader smiling.
Fire Trucks, Garter Belts, and My Perfect Ex by Heather Novak won First in Category in the CIBA 2019 Chatelaine Awards for Romance books.
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