About Hourglass
by Jane Davitt
291 pages / 70000 words
ISBN: 978-1-61040-133-3
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When Ben Adler gives in and makes his young daughter's wish come true,
making a movie out of a TV show he used to produce, he knows he's going to
have big problems. One of the leads from the original is a big star now, but
the other's vanished into obscurity, leading a life far from the glitz and
glamour of Hollywood. Not to mention that Ben can still remember how the two
actors' scorching off-screen romance went up in flames.
Undeterred, Ben goes forward with the project, recruiting Ash and Lee by
dangling very attractive carrots before them. The cameras start to roll, but
the main action takes place off set. It's never easy to work with an old
flame, or
to handle the renewed feelings that are bound to come out. As two men who
could never get enough of each other deal with a rekindled attraction, they
discover that when it comes to love, there's always time for a retake.
Review
Lee Benoit, author of Servant of the Seasons, writes: I've never met a
Jane Davitt story I didn't like, but I have to say Hourglass is the best
ever. This is a story of love lost and love regained, and for my money
Jane gets everything right.
The heroes are, well, tarnished -- damaged by lives and choices that
make real-world sense and breed blockbuster consequences. Sexy
matinee-idol Ash made the choice that drove the heroes apart ten years
before Hourglass' action begins, and Davitt infuses him with just the
right streak of ego and ambition that we can easily imagine him choosing
his career over his lover. But Ash has grown in the decade between that
fateful choice and his reunion with the man who got away. With very deft
character development, Davitt introduces us to the broken Ash, shows us
his shiny and hopeful past, and draws him forward to his future with a
new awareness of who he is. His flaws and personality intact, the
strides Ash makes are hard-won and heart-thumping. Davitt never goes for
the foregone conclusion or the easy solution, and she knows just how to
keep her readers on the edge of their seats while her characters sweat
their way to their happy ending.
Lee (excellent name choice, IMO) could have been a victim -- of Ash's
ambition or of the entertainment industry -- but instead he's a strong,
multilayered character. After a scalding affair with Ash during the run
of their TV show "Hourglass" Lee left acting behind, forged a life for
himself, and came out of the closet. Reconnecting with his former lover
as they prepare to shoot an "Hourglass" movie, he confronts his hurt and
regret about the past in direct and honest ways. He's an easy man to
like and respect, and Davitt has us rooting for him every step of the
way. Lee's no doormat -- he doesn't make it easy for Ash or for himself,
and that makes their ultimate reconciliation all the more satisfying.
The secondary characters are perfectly drawn and each pulls his or her
own weight in the meaty, engrossing plot. Ben is a Hollywood producer in
the old-fashioned, hard-boiled mode whose soft spots for his daughter
and ultimately our heroes strike just the right gruffly affectionate
note. Ben's daughter Samantha, the catalyst for the plot, is just the
sort of eleven-year-old you'd want to spend time with. Worldly and
precocious, with her dad wrapped around her little finger, she's never
twee or irritating. Lee's agent, a personal trainer, and a few others
glide seamlessly into and out of the story supporting the action and the
development of Ash and Lee's romance without ever chomping on scenery or
stealing scenes -- a temptation that must have been hard to resist as
each is three-dimensional and engaging.
Davitt also does an admirable job building the world of a Hollywood film
set. Every detail is organic to the plot and effortlessly convincing.
The frenetic pace and high-stakes rhythm of filmmaking comes across
beautifully and adds a sense of urgency to the mood of the novel.
And speaking of mood: Ash and Lee are an insanely hot couple. Their past
and present encounters each contribute something essential to the story,
so that every time they come together we learn something new about them
or the challenges they face. And that's the most amazing thing of all in
this extremely strong novel: Davitt tells an engrossing story by staying
true to her characters in every respect, and the reader can't look away
until the final, inevitable "Fade Out."
Sample
Ben ambled into the kitchen and fed the coffee maker
water and Folgers, before pressing a single button. That done, he hacked off
a piece of two-day-old cake, sticky with glaze and rich with cinnamon and
ate it over the sink, staring out at his pool. February. Too cold to swim.
Ben wasn't the hardy type and he didn't have a body that could transcend
goose bumps and still look good. At forty-five, he was balding, had a
pot-belly, and the hair on his chest was turning gray. The thermometer said
it was 14C; he'd stay dressed, thanks.
The house was quiet, his phone set to voice mail, as it always was when he
was asleep. He was too big a name to be woken up because someone else had a
problem. If he listened, though, he could hear the TV's chatter floating up
from the basement. When the coffee maker had produced enough to fill his
favorite, over-sized mug, a plain, glossy red, thick and heavy, he headed
down the basement stairs, sipping as he went.
Two steps from the foot of the stairs, Samantha wailed, "Noooooo," her voice
desolate, despairing. Ben lurched forward, instinctively responding to her
distress, spilled coffee over his bare feet, and cursed dispassionately as
the liquid soaked into a pearl-gray carpet. Scotch-Guarded, his ass -- that
was never coming off.
"Sweetheart? You okay?" he called, shaking his feet irritably, one by one.
Of course she was okay, why wouldn't she be okay? She'd probably spent the
last four hours watching gore and porn because he was a shitty father, but
hey, every other kid in her class seemed to be in therapy, so why not her?
"He was pushed off the roof," Samantha said, her face tragic and she hit
pause on the remote, freezing the action on a screen big enough to need a
zip code. "He died. Oh, God, Daddy, tell me it works out because I can't
watch it if he stays dead."
Kids nowadays; they thought death could be erased and yeah, if the star was
big enough and the fans loud enough, sometimes, just sometimes, it could
happen. Dallas had done it on an epic scale with Bobby in the freaking
shower for a year. It took balls of steel to write off an entire season as a
dream. Ben was a believer in go big or go home. If he failed, and in this
industry you could wake up a has-been after going to bed a sure-thing, he'd
do it in style.
"What're you watching?" Ben squinted at the screen, the action frozen on a
frame with someone's back taking up most of the shot. Automatically, he
admired the angle and the lighting, recognizing his own work, and then
something about the tilt of the head…
Next to the TV was a tall stack of videotapes, the boxes looking big and
clunky compared to a slim DVD case. They were official studio ones, not
merchandise, so the covers were blank, but Ben's eyesight was still 20-20
and he could read the neat printing on the spines. Anger, disappointment,
regret; the echoes of the emotions he'd felt ten years before when the show
ended rang in his ears, making his heart pound with a sickeningly fast beat.
Hourglass. His baby girl was watching Hourglass.
Well, fuck.