FIVE STAR FIRST EDITION ROMANCE NEWS

Katrina by Africa Fine
0-7862-3027-4, $26.95, Hardcover, 210 est. pages
Publication Date: September, 2001

News Release

Katrina and Patrick had always been the kind of friends whose names were always said together - the kind of friends she thought would never grow apart. And for fifteen years, Katrina Larson was secretly in love with her best friend, Patrick Flannery. But when they finally became lovers, she learns that he is not the man she dreamed he would be.

When Patrick comes to Milwaukee after a five-year absence, Katrina is twenty-seven, working at an advertising job she hates and dealing with her mother's relationship with a new man. The novel begins with Patrick's return when he arrives without warning on Katrina's doorstep one August evening. That night, they make love for the first time.

Patrick reenters her life, attentive and loving, and he forces Katrina to acknowledge feelings she has concealed since they were kids. However, he is secretive about where he's been traveling and with whom, and their reunion is tainted by this secrecy. Katrina cannot ignore her questions about the last five years of his life, and eventually, her persistence and his evasions drive a wedge between them. When Katrina gets fed up with Patrick's refusal to commit, a new man, Linc Davis, is waiting to comfort her. Linc is attentive where Patrick is distant, open when Patrick is evasive, and she begins to wonder whether Patrick deserves her love.

Under pressure from Katrina, Patrick finally reveals that he is engaged to marry another woman. Linc is a welcome distraction for Katrina, but he comes to mean more to her as she begins to deal with Patrick's betrayal. While Katrina questions whether Linc is simply a rebound relationship, Linc tries to forge a future with her.

Katrina must also come to terms with her father's long absence. Katrina's world is populated by a mix of races - Patrick is Irish American, Linc is African American, and Katrina's own mother is a mix of African American, Native American and a little bit of everything else. Katrina traces the development of a heroine who is forced to learn that some childhood wishes are not meant to be fulfilled.