If You Tame Me

If You Tame Me

Kathie Giorgio

Black Rose Writing, Oct 3, 2019

268 pages

Women’s Lit, Life Passages, Adult Fiction

Provided by NetGalley

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since the first time I saw this cover, I was fascinated with this book, but I had no idea what it was about. Finally, I read the synopsis because I just couldn’t stand not knowing. I requested the book and was approved for it. I sat down and started reading it. I set it aside for a day or so and thought about it almost constantly. Then I picked it back up and finished it. Trust me, the iguana on the cover is not the one who needs taming. Though he does bite.

His name is Newton or Newt for short. He’s called that because Fig Newton cookies are Audrey’s favorite and she didn’t want a cat, too cliche.

At 55 and single all her life, Audrey feels she needs to have a partner of some kind. She gets Newt from the local pet store and they bond quite well. She has bookshelves full of human relationship books and she’s read them all and that’s what she bases her relationship with Newt on. She treats him just as she would a human partner. Giving him his own space. Spending time with him. Talking with him about his day and hers. She has an electric blanket on her bed and he has an electric hammock to sleep in. He no longer stays in the glass tank she brought him home in. He has a large tree to climb in her front bay window, it’s a sunny spot and he can see her go off to work and come home. She’s created bricked corners in each room for him. She’s very careful with his diet.

But even this relationship with Newt doesn’t seem to be filling the need Audrey seems to be feeling. A friend she makes at work at the mall convinces her to join an online dating service. But there’s the very nice guy who owns the pet store, Dave. And then there’s her next-door neighbor with the six parakeets who cleared her driveway the last time it snowed. That would be Frank.

Frank has his own relationship problems going on. He was married to wife #1 and they didn’t want children, so they were fine. Then wife #1 decided she wanted children and divorced him. He got married to wife #2. Wife #2 died of cancer and Frank moved to a new house with no memories and got six parakeets. Lately, he’s been running into wife #1, who’s a widow now and lonely. And wife #2 is a ghost and keeps visiting him. She’s trying to keep wife #1 away, but help Frank find a new woman.

While all this is going on, Audrey reconnects with her best friend from college and they run up and down memory lane and rebond to create an all-new friendship that suits their new maturity. And Audrey has made several young friends who work at the mall as she does. At 55, suddenly her world has expanded just with her opening her mind and her world to Newt. This story is about passages and opening one’s mind and world to ideas and people you may not have considered before. Where one change leads to another and another. I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially to older readers who may be looking for a way to open their worlds a bit to some change. This is inspirational and fun.