Star: Hi there. It’s been a while, friends, and we are sorry for our silence!
Duck: I’d like to point out, as a duck, that I have been tugging at the hem of Star’s cotton sweaters for a while now, because what the duck? This is a blog! A blog is literally defined by its writing.
Star: True. At the same time, I’ve been deeply ensconced in other writing. And other reading. Which brings us to Roan Parrish’s The Lights on Knockbridge Lane.
Duck: It’s a duck of a great book!
Star: It really is. Roan Parrish writes LGBTQIA+ romance beak-to-flippers beautifully. She creates a truly vulnerable, sparkling romance. I can land in Parrish’s warm pond and really hang out.
Duck: I thought you fixed that problem with your jeans?
Star: I’m not talking about jeans, Duck! I’m talking about sinking into a group of heartfelt characters and enjoying the warm water of their blossoming romance. Because that’s what Parrish does so well.
Duck: Bubble bath?
Star: No, Duck, the story, the characters, the world! In The Lights On Knockbridge Lane, Adam is father to a kid named Gus (she/her). What with his job at the hardware store, he has his work cut out—especially since Gus’s other dad left the family when he decided he couldn’t really be a dad. The romance builds with Adam and Gus’s neighbor Wes, who has his own challenging past. As the romance builds between Adam and Wes, Gus, who’s been through a lot, having been adopted by two dads and now being left by one of them, so Adam, helped by Wes, is trying to make her Christmas wish come true: Decorate the house with “the most lights ever.”
Duck: Look, I’m a duck, Star, so I’ve not read the book. But I have to ask, where are the story stakes? I know that’s something you love to gab about.
Star: Well, Duck, the emotional stakes are high because of how badly we want Adam and Wes to get together. They deserve each other, and by writing such well-developed characters with big, booming hearts, Parrish makes that clear. It’s also touching to see what a great father Adam is, and how he devotes himself to Gus. But his relationship with Wes can also bring him something he’s missing: Romantic love, a family, and a shared life. In this romance, Gus gets to be a big part of this too.
Duck: I actually thought “story stakes” were a thing you eat with a side of green beans and some lightly whipped mash.
Star: Are you getting confused with swordfish steaks?”
Duck: Oops. My bad.
Star: Now I’m hungry. Anyway, the true heart of this story not only lies in the central romance but also with Adam and Wes’s relationship with Adam’s kiddo Gus. Gus is a fabulous character! Often in romance I feel that the child characters are rather flat and/or stereotyped. But Gus is large as life and so vividly drawn! Her voice, her sense of justice, her outspokenness, both her emotional intelligence and sharp logic, not to mention her curiosity with spiders and snakes—creatures that Adam hates but Wes loves—all go to create a full and thriving character! Of course, Adam and Wes’s romance has its own stakes too, including Wes’s longing for love versus his fear of being seen after a harsh and devastating past. Add in the growing family’s stakes, and Gus becomes even more integral. In fact, when the novel’s crisis takes hold, Gus speaks her own truth to Wes, and it’s deeply meaningful—for all of them.
Also, a BIG shoutout to Parrish for her thoughtfulness when building this diverse world. There’s a lovely mix of gender and sexual identity—as a nonbinary person I rarely feel included, but I do here. Adam’s conversations with Gus about justice and relationships are wise and beautiful. It’s powerful and unusual to find this in a romance.
Duck: I tell what you what else is powerful, Star. Mercury Retrograde. The spam calls alone make me quack to high heaven.
Star: We’re discussing this now?
Duck: It’s a duck of a big problem! You see, during the pondemic, the waterfowl weren’t eating much fish because they “weren’t safe to guzzle.” The result? A super-ducking enormous fish population. So, fish are doing everything now. They’re even making spam calls for a living! When you get a call from a free number, guaranteed it’s a ducking carp.
Star: And Mercurty Retrograde …?
Duck: It makes it all worse, Star! Mercury backs up for a coffee, and I’m fielding hundreds of calls from carp and crustaceans!
Star: There we have it, friends. Mercury goes retrograde and the lobsters are selling timeshares. What a GREAT time to pick up Roan Parrish’s fabulous The Lights on Knockbridge Lane!
Duck: Do you know, I think I will!
Star: Good call! Prepare to really bond with these gorgeous characters and spend a Christmas with deep authenticity and a duck of a lot of love.
Duck: Can we buy that bubble bath now? The moisturizing sort. My flippers get so dry at this time of year.
Star: Thanks for reading, friends! We’re off the supermarket. If Duck doesn’t get his Dove, I may never write again.
You can buy The Lights on Knockbridge Lane by Roan Parrish on Harlequin here or on Amazon here.
