Waking Up

• Author: Amanda Carpenter
• Publisher: Presents # 919
• Year: 1986
• Setting: Cincinnati
• Amazon Listing - Waking Up

Cover Copy

Something was happening to their friendship...

Robbie Fisher had always been a couple of years and a few changes behind her neighbor, Jason Morrow. Still, he'd lent an ear to all her dreams and troubles right up to the time he'd left for university.

Now he was back in Cincinnati, looking after his parents' home for the summer. But Robbie no longer felt comfortable confiding in him. He was the man with the golden future, while hers was still in question.

What could he be to her now? Stranger, big brother, friend or something disturbingly new? It was a dilemma Robbie could discuss with no one -- Jason least of all!

Reader Comments

I read this for the first time in 1986 and was surprised that this book was published as a Presents title. Unlike the highly sophisticated, exotic Presents titles, this book was sweet and homey. Set in Cincinnati and featuring a virgin heroine and hero -- both of whom are quite young, he's only 24 -- this book reads much more like a Harlequin Romance, except for the fact that the characters do have sex.

Of course, when they do, the author falls back on a variation of the Big Misunderstanding plot device, keeping her couple apart for the flimsiest of reasons. Robbie, clearly a tomboy who will never go by the name Roberta, sees Jason hugging another woman, a woman who happens to be a good friend of his, and assumes the worst. I was also surprised then (and now) by how naive the 22-year old Robbie is. It's almost like she's lived a life completely sheltered from male-female relationships. Her understanding of sex and dating feels very dated, even for 1986. I wonder if I'd find the same level of naivity if I read other Presents novels from that era?

Still, this is a cute read, even after all these years. --Romancewiki 11:01, 7 January 2007 (PST)