A Line Between Friends

by Michele VanOrt Cozzens
ISBN: 978-1932172263
Amazon
Reviewed for Armchair Interviews


Noelle begins the story by telling us about sending Christmas cards out, and a specific one she received from her long-time friend, Joel. Joel has asked her to no longer contact him. The tale unfolds as we are pushed back to their days of high school (where they met) and college. Noelle tries to figure out why Joel would ask her to stop writing to him…after all; they’re just friends, right? Well, we soon see that Joel has a very special place in his heart for Noelle, and he compares every other woman to her. They both date other people and they go their separate ways, but they always end up back with each other. While making friends, moving all over the country, and marrying other people, Joel and Noelle are able to remain friends although many years prior they ‘crossed the line of friendship’, they now had a sexual relationship as well. Noelle’s reaction to Joel’s request for her to no longer contact him is to write a book about their relationship. She becomes famous for this book, and Joel never speaks to her again.

Cozzens’ first book reminds me of a popular teen soap opera show of the nineties…Dawson’s Creek. Two childhood friends who one day cross ‘the line’ and then struggle to have relationships that aren’t compared to their first love. In the end one of them moves on and the other makes a bunch of money exploiting the relationship. It’s your typical ‘friends grow up and grow apart’ story-line and was very easy to read. There is a lot of history in this novel. The time frame goes back to 1977, so there is a lot of political issues and legal issues that are dealt with, along with personal struggles by each of the characters. Even though this wasn’t one of my favorite novels of the year, I can only hope that my first novel is this good!

Armchair Interview says: Good title to attract readers.