Kissing Games of the World: A Novel

by Sandi Kahn Shelton Narrated by Myra Platt

Overview

What if the one person you can't bear to be with is also the one person you can't bear to be without? Jamie McClintock is a free-spirited artist and single mother who has at last found peace and freedom sharing a farmhouse with an elderly man and his young grandson. But when the old man dies suddenly, her idyllic country life comes to a halt, as the old man's estranged son, Nate, return's to claim the house and his child. Jamie can't stand Nate's sick, arrogant, salesman-like approach to parenthood, and Nate is irritated by her laid-back, earth mother view of life, not to mention her fondness for artsy knitted vests. This is definitely not love at first sight. But as they try to work out the logistics of raising their two little boys-reluctantly enduring everything from games of hide-and-seek with Daddy's BlackBerry to breakfast of headless teddy bear pancakes-their lives become hopelessly intertwined. It's not until they've gone their separate ways that they both realize that sometimes love sneaks through the door you were sure you'd slammed long ago, and that rescue from the past can come from unlikeliest places.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Journalist Shelton's poignant third novel (after What Comes After Crazy) elevates the oft-told stories of opposites attracting and sons struggling against their fathers. The residents of Chester, Conn., assumed that 60-something Harris Goddard was up to his old womanizing ways when single mother Jamie McClintock and her five-year-old son, Arley, moved in with him and his five-year-old grandson, Christopher. Though Harris and Jamie's affections are purely platonic, the rumor mill begins to churn when Harris dies and is discovered naked in Jamie's bed. Everyone is suspicious of her, including Nate Goddard, Christopher's father, who shows up to finally claim his son with plans to sell Harris's house and take his grieving son on the road with him. As Nate tries to put his plan into play, the surprising Goddard family backstory unwinds and Jamie, also wracked with pain, finds herself attracted to Nate and vice versa. An absolute treat, Shelton's work rarely falters and is filled with realistic twists, complex characters and a moving conclusion. (Nov.)

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Library Journal

Shelton's third novel (after A Piece of Normal) is an engrossing, charming, and often funny exploration of love and the relationships that result. Artist Jamie McClintock and her son, Arley, are happy where they are. A year ago, Harris Goddard asked them to move in with him and his grandson, Christopher, and share responsibilities. The arrangement works-until Harris drops dead from a heart attack. Suddenly, Jamie and Arley have to find a new place to live, and five-year-old Christopher is going to be uprooted from the only home he's ever known to live with his estranged father. Nate Goddard left his son in the care of his father after his wife was killed in a car accident, and somehow he has never managed to make his way back. Harris's death forces Nate to return home, and while he's eager to get to know Christopher, he hasn't a clue about how to be a father. The presence of earth mother Jamie and asthmatic Arley in the family home isn't making his attempts any easier. Though the slow-building and complicated relationship between Jamie and Nate plays a role in the story, it is the relationships between Nate and his son and Nate and his deceased father that allow the author to explore love in its different incarnations. Recommended for all public libraries.
—Jane Jorgenson

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169076516
Publisher:	Listen & Live Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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