Double-Header for Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, read the rules at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

January has been a bad month for me! With an office move sandwiched between two illnesses, I feel like I have not accomplished anything. But my bout with the flu is to your benefit, because between naps, about all I have been able to do is to read. I blasted through a couple of excellent books this weekend, and had to share both with you!

One of the reasons that I picked up The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan is that like This Plague of Days, it involves a protagonist on the autism spectrum at the center of an intriguing plot. And unlike This Plague of Days, The Gauguin Connection gives us a capable, believable, well-rounded autistic character (and a great plot!):

Then he lifted his eyes and gave me a smile. The first genuine smile I had seen on his face. “I could kiss you right now.”

My eyes stretched in shock and I pushed with my feet to roll my chair away from him. “Please don’t.”

Estelle Ryan, The Gauguin Connection

Sometimes when I take a book out of my pile, I don’t remember what made me add it to my TBR list to begin with (a good reason for tracking them in my new So many books posts). So when I started on The Only Alien on the Planet this weekend, I only remembered that it had an intriguing description. I devoured it, thoroughly enjoying the characterization, quickly moving plot, and great insight into friendship, communication, and being the masters of our own happiness. When I hit the last usual Amazon “Before you go” pop-up at the end with “more books by…” I realized why I had bought The Only Alien on the Planet in the first place: It is by Kristen D. Randle, who is my newest favorite author. I don’t know another author who succeeds in entering into the mind and heart of a damaged individual like Randle does. I can only strive for my books to reach that same place.

And if that was so, what I had in my hand was an open window into somebody else’s house.

I put the poem down on the table in front of me.

I was trespassing.

Kristen D. Randle, Only Alien on the Planet

Covers and summaries for both books are below:

gauguin twitter

Murdered artists. Masterful forgeries. Art crime at its worst.

As an insurance investigator and world renowned expert in nonverbal communication, Dr Genevieve Lenard faces the daily challenge of living a successful, independent life. Particularly because she has to deal with her high functioning Autism. Nothing – not her studies, her high IQ or her astounding analytical skills – prepared her for the changes about to take place in her life.

It started as a favour to help her boss’ acerbic friend look into the murder of a young artist, but soon it proves to be far more complex. Forced out of her predictable routines, safe environment and limited social interaction, Genevieve is thrown into exploring the meaning of friendship, expanding her social definitions, and for the first time in her life be part of a team in a race to stop more artists from being murdered.

alien twitter

New student Ginny is intrigued by the handsome alien in her homeroom-no, this is not a science fiction novel. Smitty-real name Michael-is known to his schoolmates as “The Alien” because of his affectless appearance and complete silence. Soon, Ginny and Smitty’s longtime protector, Caulder, team up to try and crack his shell. They get much more than they bargain for when they drag him along on old-movie outings; as a none-too-subtle plot device, the first turns out to be The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, the second, East of Eden. Smitty walks out of both, for it turns out that he was almost fatally abused by his older brother, who also convinced him that he would die if he spoke to anyone. With the help of Ginny, Caulder and a wise and sympathetic therapist, Smitty emerges from this psychological curse, and he and Ginny even begin a tentative romantic relationship.

9 thoughts on “Double-Header for Teaser Tuesday”

  1. Thanks everybody for their kind thoughts! I think this has been the worst virus I’ve ever had, other than chicken pox. And even with chicken pox, I didn’t still have a fever a week later! And at the worst times, I couldn’t even read, so I’m thankful for the times I could! I’m still coughing away too, Nise. Hope you’re better soon too!

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