Tough Girl Questions -- I Do Bad Things For Love

Shes the Girl" by Susan M. Brooks beautifully illustrates the trap of crafting our own expectations of Love. As the main character Natalie discovers, the ideal of True Love is as believable as the Beauty of Menstruation and as tangible as the image of the Blessed Virgin on a garage door.

(PRWEB) January 22, 2004 --Susan Brooks quirky novel takes readers on a journey about as predictable as a bumblebees flight pattern. Though a self-described loner whos never been good with girls," Natalie develops an unexpected, frightening and intense bond with Trina, an enigmatic hitchhiker en route to a prison wedding. As Trina leads, Nat follows, past both physical and emotional boundaries of the disparity between love and relationship that Nat has meticulously constructed for herself.

Desperate to prove the possibility of true love, Natalie embarks on a 3,000-mile road-trip to reunite with her high-school sweetheart, Guy. But Nats journey takes a turn for the bizarre as the trip seems to take on a life of its own. Waking up with someone elses spouse after an all-night binge on Kamikazes; beating a boy in a wet t-shirt contest; ballroom dancing on the roof of a Vegas bar; and keeping company with a 68-year-old virgin-all mile markers that show just far off course the trip has plunged. Nat suddenly finds herself knee-deep in all the toughest girl questions when she goes looking for the simplest truth, and her long trek over miles of anonymous highway leave her too much time to ponder the who, what, where, why and how of finding love.

Trina, the free-spirited, sexually ambiguous wanderer who claims to be in love every chance I get" cant figure out just what the big deal is, and Madeline, the proprietress of a girl bar in Vegas (who is holding some secrets of her own), reveals her own love fears when she frets aloud to her partner, Would you still love me if I had no arms?" Adding to Nats confusion are the myriad faces of love presented to her that, were it not for her companions, she never would have recognized as the real thing.

Eventually, Nats unwelcome epiphany that love is never what it appears to be" destroys a lifelong belief system, forcing her to reconcile her elaborate fantasies with the reality and complexity of human connection. In the end, Nat learns that love itself is truly indefinable and it is better to be open to whatever experiences come her way, no matter how bizarre or unconventional.

Shes the Girl"
by Susan M. Brooks.
Small Dogs Press http://www.smalldogspress.com
ISBN: 0-9729329-2-5
Paperback, $14.95, 292 pp.

AUTHOR AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW
MEDIA KIT AND REVIEW COPY UPON REQUEST


Small Dogs Press is a new publishing house based in Seal Beach, California. Our first title,
"She's the Girl," by Susan M. Brooks, will be released on Valentine's Day, 2004.

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