"terrific look at relationships"
In Scottsdale, Arizona, Natalie Quackenbush teaches
English at Agave High School, lives with her parents, and
loves to go bar-hopping with her best friend, big-boned
almost six feet tall Jill as they enjoy telling lies to
males trying and failing to pick them up. Three years ago
she gave up on her Yuppie boyfriend and Boston to move
back to her parents though she knows that makes her a
loser. At a bar Natalie meets Jonathan and tells him her usual
lies about herself; that she teaches at a prison and lives
with her parents because her mom has Alzheimer's.
However, this time her web of deceit backfires as she
finds she likes him and wants to see him. He feels the
same way about her. As they fall in love, she knows she
owes him the truth and he knows he owes her the truth
about a stalker. Instead both run away from the
confrontation; hers being metaphoric while his is simply
vanishing. GETTING WARMER is a terrific look at relationships built
initially on the theory that "What a tangled web we weave,
when we practice to deceive. Even a white lie that should
hurt no one is difficult to overcome once started. The
support cast, mostly those connected to the school, her
family, or his stalker, enhance the prime romance while
two other love stories also provide depth. Fans will
enjoy the education rat pack as they showcase their skills
at telling fibs in lieu of explaining failed expectations
("Those who can do. Those who can't, teach"). They tell
more lies in a futile attempt to extract them from that
first untruth. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 26, 2006
SummaryNatalie Quackenbush is approaching thirty, drowning in
debt—and did she mention she lives with her parents?
It's the kind of small talk she'd rather avoid. So she and
her friends have found a new way to entertain themselves on
the Scottsdale, Arizona singles scene: lying.
It's an innocent game, but when Natalie meets a guy she
actually likes—and wants to see again—how will she
explain that her mother isn't actually insane? Or that she
doesn't really work with convicted murderers? If she can
find a way out of her lies without destroying this fragile
new relationship along the way, she might just wind up with
something real.
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