A Groovy Kind of Love

A Groovy Kind of Love by Karen Wojcik Berner  316 pages

I was a little nervous about reading A Groovy Kind of Love. It’s the third and final book in “The Bibliophiles” series.  I have the other two, only they haven’t gotten to the top of my pile. Then I read, somewhere that they are stand-alone novels with a common theme: the protagonists belong to a book club. And as best I can tell, it isn’t even the same book club. An interesting concept.

A Groovy Kind of Love is a character-driven novel. The first part of the novel give background info on the protagonists. Thaddeus Mumblegarden IV is a timid and meek child. He’d rather read than breathe. However, his father is a stereotypical dad, forcing the young man into baseball. Thaddeus is good at it, he becomes the team’s star pitcher. Dad has such an influence on the child’s life that Thaddeus studies computer programming rather than English Literature when it comes time to go to college.

On the other hand, Spring Pearson is the daughter of free-spirited hippie parents who run Ambrosia, a smoothie establishment. Spring also loves to read. The book jacket talks of Spring having an older sister, but if she was mentioned, it wasn’t memorable. Spring loves to read too, but the fun in her part of the background info is watching her become more confident in her business abilities, and moving more and more to running the store on her own.

In the novel’s Part Two, Thaddeus and Spring meet in a book club, fall in love, and get married. I can’t talk any more about this section because it would spoil the story.

A Groovy Kind of Love is a fast, quick read with short chapters, and I couldn’t stop reading. I’m giving this novel 4 out of 5 stars for two reasons: First, there could have been less Part One and more Part Two. That’s where the real plot and drama are.  If I read Part One quickly, then I devoured Part Two. Second, the title of the book is a song title. I get the title after reading the book, but it seems like a long shot to me.